


Different Streams

by writingfromdarkplaces



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Brothers, Case Fic, Crossover, F/M, First Meetings, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Overprotective, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 03:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 64,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8385103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfromdarkplaces/pseuds/writingfromdarkplaces
Summary: The NCIS investigation into the murder of Lee's shipmate puts him at odds with the agency as they dig into his brother's traumatic past.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I had a rough day at work and decided I got to indulge myself some, which was binge watching all of Timeless again and then writing for it a little as well as pursuing this concept which owes at least in part to that show as well as to Frequency, since time travel complications got me wondering what it would be like if Jake and Ellie met at different points in their lives.
> 
> I had also wanted to try and make an NCIS crossover work with BSG before, but I kept running up against the Cylon wall. I didn't want that (but oh, how tempting it was to want to use Ellie as an NCIS investigator and tie that to FLAC somehow, which would have been problematic all the same.) I ended up going to what I used for the Longmire crossover I did, so instead of Colonial Fleet, it's US Navy. It's an interesting mix of ideas. 
> 
> I have no idea if it actually works as even remotely coherent, but here goes nothing. 
> 
> And I promise I will get back to the stories I've got in progress. This is just what happens when I do a strange psuedo-comfort writing thing.

* * *

_“Are you sure you need all of these?” the girl at the counter asked, nodding to the stack of books as she passed them back to him. “Isn't your grandfather's name on the building or something?”_

_He forced a smile, not sure why everyone made that mistake. His grandfather had donated money to the school, helped them build a new wing, but it was on the other side of campus—a part of the school of business. Not the library, and not anything to do with his major. Half the reason he'd picked it was to separate himself from his family's interests and stand on his own._

_“Anyway, you have a week,” she said, pulling the receipt from the printer and holding it out to him. He took it, placing it inside the top book before shifting them all into his bag. He put the bag over his shoulder and started toward the doors._

_He had a long night ahead of him, not that it was any different from any other night. He didn't get out much, not that he cared. He wasn't that good with people, so it was easier to spend his time with books, improving his understanding of the law._

_The trouble with studying law was that it was so complex, always changing. New precedents were made, new amendments ratified—it was a fluid thing, in motion, shifting and altering just when he thought he understood it. He didn't know that he'd ever get a true handle on it, though it would help if he could pick which area of law he wanted to focus on._

_He left the library, stepping out into the night. He grimaced when he saw how dark it had gotten. He hadn't meant to stay so late, but he'd been deep in a reference book he couldn't check out, and he'd lost track of time._

_He started across campus, headed for his dorm. He knew he shouldn't cut across the grass, but it would save him time, and with this many books, he wanted the shorter walk. He almost hit a low hanging branch of a tree as he went by, and he stumbled away from it, bumping into something a lot more solid._

_He turned, about to apologize when his bag was yanked off his arm. He frowned, trying to understand what was happening. He could hear the bag being unzipped even as someone grabbed him from behind, putting an arm around his neck and cutting off his air. He clawed at the arm, trying to free himself._

_“You have a lot of books in here,” another man said, stepping in front of him. He couldn't see his face. There wasn't enough light, and he couldn't breathe. “Too bad you won't need any of them ever again.”_

_He didn't get a chance to try and ask about that. One of the books smacked hard into the side of his head, and everything went dark._

* * *

“Down there.”

Ellie thanked the sales associate, heading down the aisle she needed. She'd never thought she'd need help locating a book in a bookstore, but she hadn't counted on the size of this place or its confusing layout. She also hadn't expected the book she wanted for her research to be as rare as it was proving to be. She'd already tried two other stores, and she wanted this one to be the last stop, meaning she'd find what she was looking for instead of having to admit defeat to McGee as she ordered it off of online—like he'd told her to do.

She stopped in front of the shelf, looking over the titles and shaking her head. This was where the book _should_ be, but it wasn't here. She'd missed out on it, again, even though the sales associate had said they had a copy, at least according to their inventory system.

She backed away from the shelf and right into someone. Wincing, she tried to apologize. “I'm sorry. I didn't realize anyone was behind me.”

He pulled the book in his hands up against his chest, seeming out of place with the suit and tie. He adjusted his glasses, making her think of Clark Kent and his exaggerated awkwardness. “It's fine.”

“That's the book,” she said, and he took a step backward. She supposed that was the wrong way to say it, but she hadn't expected him to react like that to her statement. It wasn't an accusation. “Again, I'm sorry. It's just that I've already checked two stores looking for that exact book, and they said they had a copy, but I thought that had to be wrong, only there it is.”

He frowned, looking down at it. “You're interested in stamp collecting?”

“It's for work,” she explained. Their last case had involved rare stamps, and Tony kept referencing Charade. She'd been fascinated by the idea, which was why she was hoping to find a book that explained the reasons that made each stamp valuable, not so much a guide of each stamp's value that almost every store had but the meaning behind the values. That was the book in his hands. “My friend was mocking the idea and a coworker, and I admit, I found it hard to understand why used stamps would have any value.”

“Some people actually collect the postmarks themselves.”

“They do?” Ellie really didn't know much of anything about stamp collecting. Maybe she should have gone with the basic guide that was back on the shelf. “That is... amazing.”

“I don't know about that,” he said. He held the book out to her. “Take it.”

“You're sure? Weren't you about to buy it?”

He shook his head, walking way from her. She shrugged, not sure that it mattered. She went back to the counter. She paid for the book, still not sure what that was about. She supposed he might not have intended to buy it after all, and he didn't really seem like the type who would have stolen it—that would have been hard to do with a book its size.

She shook her head, collecting her bag and heading back to the doors. She made the mistake of walking past the cafe, and her stomach said danish. She shouldn't give into it, but she was technically on lunch, so it was fine. She'd just get one and go.

The bag hit someone as she passed a table, and she turned in time to see the coffee cup hit that same suit. The lid popped off, drenching him in hot coffee. She flinched. “Oh, no. I am so—I didn't mean to—”

“It's fine,” he said, though it was obvious that it wasn't. He stood, and she reached for the nearest napkin, holding it out to him.

“I can buy you another,” she said. “Or... I'll pay for your dry cleaning. I can't believe that happened.”

He shook his head. “No. I just—I have to go.”

He walked away, heading right for the doors, not that she could blame him. She stood in the cafe, biting her lip. She didn't really have an appetite, but she needed the danish anyway. Comfort food. She had completely ruined that man's day.

Great. Wasn't the whole point of taking the job at NCIS to make her better with people? Clearly it wasn't working.

* * *

“First night back in port,” Helo said, leaning against the bulkhead and looking down at the bunk. He would have figured that would have made more of an impact, but then not everyone seemed as excited by the prospect of shore leave as he did. He shook that off, not sure he understood that but not willing to let himself dwell on it, either. “Freedom at last. So, where are we headed?”

Silence greeted his question, and he frowned, hoping this was not what he thought it was. He knew that his pilot had a lot on his mind, but that was nothing new. Helo had learned first time up with Apollo that Lee was only free when he was flying, and usually only if Starbuck was on his wing. Otherwise, the man just thought too damn much.

“Lee?”

Apollo looked up, finally, and grimaced. “Sorry. Distracted. Did you need something, Helo?”

“A destination. I heard this rumor about this bar over on—”

“Can't.”

Helo frowned, folding his arms over his chest. “Okay, I know you have been under a lot of pressure with this whole flight leader they're probably going to promote you soon thing going on, but you are not staying on the ship the entire time we're in port. I will not let that happen. And Kara will not let it happen, either.”

Lee grimaced. “Leave Kara out of it.”

Helo would, since he was in the middle of that mess enough as it was. No need making it worse. He didn't know what was wrong with those two to where they always seemed to get their wires crossed when they weren't in the air, but he could use a break from that himself.

“Then we're going out. You and me. Two of us on the town, getting you some much needed R & R,” Helo told him. “Come on. You're wasting valuable leave time brooding, and you brood enough when we're _not_ in port.”

Lee gave him a dirty look, and Helo shrugged. He wasn't going to take it back. He knew he was right. Lee agonized over everything, even things he had no control over.

“Come on. You are not staying here.”

“No, I'm preparing myself to ambush my brother,” Lee said, and Helo winced. That could backfire. Badly. It had before. No wonder Apollo hadn't gone ashore yet.

“How is he doing?”

Lee shook his head. “You'd think, by now, he'd be better, but I sometimes think he's getting worse. Not that I see him that often, so it's hard to be certain, especially since I'm pretty sure that I don't help any.”

Helo snorted. “The hell you don't. All right, that's it. We're getting off this ship and going to see him because you're wrong. He needs you. You need him. You're both dysfunctional, but you're family. It balances itself out.”

Lee rolled his eyes, but he didn't protest as he followed Helo out of the room.

* * *

“Bar, movie, or restaurant?”

The man behind the desk jerked, almost jumping in his seat, and Lee tried not to react to that himself. This was not off to a good start. Then again, he'd known that he was likely to set his brother off by showing up unannounced. He had to weigh that against the likelihood of him trying to escape before he got in, though, and not letting Jake slip away always won out.

“Bad day?”

Jake shrugged, reaching into his desk for his prescription, another bad sign. Lee hated watching him take the pills. He seemed like an addict sometimes, even if Lee knew it wasn't Jake's fault. Everyone coped differently, and while Lee had a feeling that his father would have expected Jake to have gotten over this years ago, Lee knew better. He tried not to push most of the time.

He also had never told his father he'd found the son his mother gave away, and he didn't intend to. Jake was in no state to deal with their father. Zak had trouble with the old man, and he was not in an emotionally vulnerable place to begin with.

“We're not really going to do the thing where you don't talk to me all day, are we? Because you know, when you get non-communicative, I have to resort to desperate measures, and that means—”

“No,”Jake said, shaking his head. “No measures, period. What are you even doing here? You're supposed to be at sea. Or in the air. I thought you were fighting a war.”

Lee supposed it was only fair that his career in the navy was as much a mystery to him as Jake's business was to him. He'd tried to listen to his brother explain what he did and what the company did, but all that did was bore him so much he fell asleep. At least Jake hadn't held that against him.

“I'm still on active duty, but the navy does have something we call shore leave. I have time while I'm in town, and you know I never pass up an opportunity to see you when I am.”

Jake took off his glasses, rubbing his nose. “I'm not your responsibility. You don't have to watch over me. Even if I am a mess.”

“You're not a mess. If I ever introduced you to Kara—and I'm not going to—you'd know what a mess really is,” Lee told him. Sometimes he thought the hardest part about finding his brother wasn't knowing what his mother had done or that he could have ended up in Jake's spot with a fortune five-hundred company to run, but knowing what Jake had been like before that night altered him forever. If Lee hadn't been in the navy, would it have made any difference? “I lean toward the bar myself. So does Helo.”

“I'm not supposed to mix alcohol with my medication,” Jake said. “And no. I'm not going out. I don't do that. Not after dark. You know that.”

Lee had prepared himself for this, though the argument never got easier. “You'll be fine. You won't be alone. You'll be with me and Helo, and neither of us is going to let anything happen.”

“I shouldn't need protection. That makes it sound like I'm some kind of—”

“It doesn't,” Lee interrupted before Jake could even start that one. “What happened to what we talked about? Challenging the comfort zone a little bit at a time?”

“I've... I don't want to talk about it,” Jake said. “Just go away, Lee. The answer hasn't changed. I don't want to do this. I'm glad you stopped by, it's always nice to see you, but you don't have to come. And you can't save me, so stop trying. I'm broken. I can't be fixed.”

That Lee didn't believe for a second. “I'm not going anywhere.”

* * *

Jake was fidgeting in his chair, and Helo looked over at him, tempted to switch his club soda for something a hell of a lot stronger. He knew he wouldn't—they all knew what a bad idea it was for Jake to mix his medication with alcohol—but he didn't think that stuff worked all that well. The whole idea of the drugs was to keep him from the panic attacks, only he didn't seem any calmer. If this was what he was like on the drugs, he must be insane off of them.

That still didn't sit well with Helo. He didn't know all the details, but he knew it wasn't right. This wasn't a case of twins being polar opposites because they looked alike—Lee and Jake were similar in plenty of ways, but while Lee could at least fake confidence and even got dangerously smug at times, Jake was skittish as hell. Not by nature, even. Then again, Helo only had Lee's word for what his brother had been like before, since he hadn't met him until after.

“I think I should go.”

“You've only been here ten minutes,” Lee said. “Would you try and relax? No one is lying in wait outside the bar.”

Jake glared at him. “That was random. They weren't waiting. Or... I don't think they were. I don't know. Would you just—I hate being out after dark. I don't know why I agreed to come.”

“Your brother is very commanding,” Helo said, and Jake frowned at him. “Natural leader. He tries to hide it, but it's there. He's very much your father's son.”

“Don't bring Dad into this,” Lee warned. “I mean it, Helo. You won't have to worry about having a girl in port ever again.”

Jake shook his head, but that was just what he needed. Helo knew it. So did Lee. Somehow their squabbling always seemed to calm him, which didn't make sense, but Lee had tried to reason it out once—something about taking the focus off Jake, though that couldn't be all of it. Distracting Jake didn't always work, but maybe the arguing made them more real. That would allow Jake to feel safer, which probably did calm him down.

“So, anyway,” Helo said, leaning forward across the table, “about that story I was—”

“No,” Lee objected immediately. “Don't even start, Helo. You know better.”

Jake shook his head. “You two are like children.”

“You think we're bad?” Helo asked, laughing. “You should see him with Kara. That's half the reason for this story in the first place. No, the whole reason. The two of them had a drinking contest the night before, not that it should have made a difference because they were both off until later the next day. Well, half the crew gets food poisoning, right, and there's not anyone to cover the flight crews that are puking in the head. No one but your brother and Kara—”

“This is going to end badly,” Jake said, and Helo just grinned.

* * *

“What have we got, Duck?”

“Female, early twenties. Cause of death seems to have been a shot to the abdomen, but I won't be certain until I've had a chance to examine her properly,” Ducky answered, and Gibbs nodded, kneeling down to get a look at his victim. She wasn't anyone he knew personally, but then that was rare enough.

Getting a call like this in the middle of the night wasn't.

“ID?” Gibbs asked, looking over at McGee, who stifled a yawn.

“Yes, Boss. Finger prints identify her as Sharon Valerii, a lieutenant. She was stationed on board a ship that docked at Norfolk earlier today,” McGee answered.

“Hell of a way to spend your shore leave,” DiNozzo said, shaking his head. “Local LEOs canvased the area. So far, no one saw or heard anything. Not sure I buy that, but this isn't really a neighborhood where anyone talks to the police.”

Gibbs nodded. He hadn't figured on much local cooperation. “Any surveillance in the area?”

“Bar around the corner has some. They said they'd give us a copy of the file,” Bishop said as she rejoined them. “She may have been a customer there, but the bartender wasn't sure. He saw a lot of people come and go, and he didn't remember hardly any of them.”

“Hardly any?”

She shrugged. “Apparently a set of twins caught his notice, but that was about it.”

“Twins tend to catch everyone's notice,” DiNozzo said. “Especially if they're good looking. Bet those ones were. Blonde or brunette?”

“He didn't say, Tony,” Bishop answered, and Gibbs looked at her. “He doesn't get many twins, not in at the same time, usually, so he noticed, but that was all. When I asked him for details, I got a shrug. He couldn't describe them, just knew they were the same.”

Gibbs grunted. That was less than useless. “We'll need to know who else was on leave when this happened and where they were.”

“You think someone from her ship killed her?”

“It's possible.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NCIS looks into some sailors at the bar that night, and an unsettling discovery is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I will credit the idea for the drug angle to an episode of the Pretender. That's where I got it from. I'm not all that original. I just really liked it for this story.

* * *

_“Whoa, where's the fire?”_

_Lee stopped, frowning. “How the hell did you get here, Helo? What are you even doing here?”_

_“Better question is what are you doing here?” Helo countered, folding his arms over his chest. “We had plans, remember? Then I hear you got off the ship with the first group on liberty, not a word to me, and I had to track you down because those plane tickets are not refundable. If you were gonna bail on me, the least you could do was say so.”_

_Lee sighed. “I really don't have time for this now, Helo. My brother is in there, and I need to get to him. I know we had plans, but I don't—”_

_“You're lying. I know you're lying. I just talked to Kara, and Zak is fine. She would know.”_

_Lee grimaced. He still hadn't adjusted to that, knowing that his wingman was involved with his younger brother. The whole thing was wrong, so damned wrong, but he was trying not to think about it. “Not Zak. My other brother.”_

_Helo snorted. “Since when do you have another brother?”_

_“Since my mother decided in a moment of blazing alcoholic clarity, that she couldn't handle two babies and gave one of them away,” Lee muttered. Helo stared at him, and Lee winced. He hadn't meant to say that. It was just stress. He'd blurted out the last thing he should have because he was worried and Helo was keeping him from his brother._

_“So... wait... you have a twin?”_

_Lee nodded. He did. That had been a little weird at first, since they hadn't been raised together, but it wasn't anymore. Things with Lee and his brother had been good._

 _Until this._

_“Does Commander Adama know?”_

_Lee shook his head. “No. She never told him, and I haven't yet, either. It... if this is as bad as they said... maybe it's better if Dad never knows.”_

_“They think he's going to die?”_

_Lee snorted. “They're not even sure why he's still alive.”_

* * *

“Where are we at?” Gibbs asked as he came up to his desk, coffee in hand. He saw Bishop eating a danish as she looked over her files, absently reaching for her own coffee. She actually looked better than both DiNozzo and McGee. Both of them were yawning, eyes barely open as they stared at their computer screens. “Tell me about Valerii.”

“Her official file didn't give us much,” DiNozzo said. “Lieutenant Sharon Valerii. Recent graduate from flight school. Stationed on board the _Teddy Roosevelt._ Nothing much else of interest, though these flight scores are a little low. She's got a terrible trap rating.”

“Her family been notified?”

“She doesn't have one,” Bishop answered. “Her parents died when she was little, and she was raised in foster care. Never formally adopted. She joined the navy after high school and has no one listed as next-of-kin. She's single, by all accounts, but then there could be more information on her social media accounts.”

Gibbs would let them sort through that. “Anything else?”

“We do have credit card activity that matches up with at least one sailor from Valerii's ship,” McGee said, stifling another yawn. “I cross-referenced the activity for the bar with the crew list for the Roosevelt and I got a couple hits. Looks like a Lieutenant Karl Agathon was at the bar that night. So was Lieutenant Commander Lee Adama.”

“What do we know about them?” Gibbs asked. That name was familiar. Adama. Must have been from another case, but he couldn't think of which one. It would come to him, though, whatever it was. Might mean this was their killer. Might mean nothing.

“Um...” McGee began, pulling the information up on the screen. “Lieutenant Karl Agathon joined the navy out of high school. He's had a few drunk and disorderly charges, nothing major. His CO speaks highly of him—he's considered the best RIO on the ship, if not in the navy itself.”

Gibbs grunted. “And Adama?”

“Adama is second generation navy. His father commands a carrier group in the south pacific fleet,” McGee said, shaking his head. “Sorry. For some reason the two files keep getting mixed.”

“Probably because you're tired, McSleepy,” DiNozzo told him. “This guy got anything besides daddy issues for us to worry about?”

McGee gave him a dirty look. “We don't even know that he has daddy issues at all, Tony.”

“We got locations on those two?”

“Agathon rented a hotel room last night,” McGee said. “We have an address for him, and we could go talk to him.”

“And we will,” DiNozzo said. “What about Adama? Anything for him?”

“If he rented a motel last night, he paid cash, but there's no activity from him after he paid for the drinks at the bar,” McGee answered.

“Find Agathon. Talk to him,” Gibbs ordered. “Bishop, get me the names of people to talk to on board ship. Gonna go see Valerii's CO.”

* * *

“Karl Agathon?”

Helo nodded, leaning against the door frame as he looked at the two men in suits. This couldn't be good, but then few things this early were ever good, even if he was almost used to the hour after so long at sea. Then again, nothing really felt right when he was this hungover. He felt more like he'd been out with Kara the night before, not Lee. She always made a point to drink him under the table. No one could drink like she could—not that anyone should drink like she did. That was not natural. Or good.

“That's me,” Helo said, looking between the two suits. “Something I can help you with?”

“NCIS,” the taller man said, flipping open his wallet to show Helo the badge. “I'm Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. This is Agent McGee. We want to ask you a few questions about Sharon Valerii.”

“Sharon?” Helo frowned. “What about Sharon?”

“Did you see her last night?”

Helo shook his head. “No. I left with Lee—Lieutenant Commander Adama—and we met up with his brother. We had a couple drinks together, then Jake wanted to leave, and Lee went with him. I stuck around, had a few more drinks, ended up here. I can never remember Jake's address when I'm drunk.”

DiNozzo frowned. “So... this Jake. He lives in town?”

Karl nodded. “Yeah. He's not military, not like me or Lee. He works for his family's company. They have an office downtown. I don't understand. What does this have to do with Sharon?”

“Is Sharon a friend of yours?”

“Kind of,” Karl said. It was complicated. He liked her, but he knew she was breaking regs with her flight chief. Everyone knew, but somehow no one had put a stop to it. She wasn't facing charges or any kind of investigation. Not yet. “We serve together. We're pilots. We're all kind of... thrown together. Did something happen to her?”

“She's dead.”

Karl stared at him. “Wait. What? How did that happen? She was... Last time I saw her was on the flight deck, but she was fine. It was... I don't understand. It... It wasn't an accident, was it? If it was, you wouldn't be here.”

“She was killed sometime last night.”

Helo winced. “I don't... That's awful. Sharon was... nice. We all liked her.”

“Anyone like her too much?”

Karl shrugged. He knew it would come out sooner or later. He didn't need to add more problems by trying to keep her secret. That was only going to get him in trouble. She was beyond that now. “We were all pretty sure she'd hooked up with someone on board.”

“You know who?”

“Not for sure,” Helo said, not wanting to be the one to say it. Sharon was a friend. He didn't have to betray her. Someone else would tell. He wasn't lying, either. This was the best balance.

“And you didn't see her at the bar at all last night?”

“No. Thing is, Jake isn't a very social drinker. We got drinks, went to the table, drank them. I got the first round, Lee got the second, and that was it for the three of us because Jake bailed. If Sharon was in before then, I would have missed her. I didn't see her after they left. I started talking to a red head, and I thought I'd made progress, but I ended up here alone.”

DiNozzo looked skeptical. McGee nodded. “You have contact information for your friends?”

Helo nodded. “Yeah. Jake should already be at his office. Lee's probably still at the townhouse.”

* * *

“According to Agathon, Valerii had something going on with someone on the ship,” Tony reported over the phone. “He said he wasn't sure who, but I think he knew.”

“We got addresses for the friends he said he was with last night,” McGee said. “We're headed to see his shipmate now.”

“Give the other address to Bishop and get over here,” Gibbs said, hanging up. McGee winced, but Tony was expecting it, more or less. The ship was a lot of ground to cover, even if most of the crew was off on liberty, and Gibbs would want bodies for that.

Plus, Malloy wasn't that credible a suspect for this, not when he was a civilian who had very likely not met Valerii at all. Still, Tony couldn't discount the idea entirely. He wanted to see what Adama had to say for himself.

And Malloy, too, since that was one hell of a townhouse. Tony parked the car and shut off the engine, looking up at the building. “We sure that address is right?”

McGee nodded. “GPS says it is.”

“Let's go say hello, then,” Tony said, opening his door and getting out. He crossed around and stepped onto the sidewalk. He climbed onto the porch and rang the doorbell as McGee caught up with him. He thought about teasing the other man about the stairs, but he was too tired to come up with anything good.

The door opened, and a man looked out at them with a frown. “Can I help you?”

“That depends,” McGee told him. “You Lee Adama?”

“I might be,” the other man said, folding his arms over his chest. “Who are you?”

“NCIS.”

Adama's posture went from almost combative to concerned. “Is Helo okay? Nothing happened to him, right? Kara was on the ship, she should have been fine, but Helo was drinking last night.”

“Helo?”

Adama winced. “Karl Agathon. My RIO. We all call him Helo. Sometimes I forget that's not his name. Are you here about him?”

“Not exactly,” Tony said. “Though it would help to know what you did last night. You were with Lieutenant Agathon all night?”

“No,” Adama said, getting suspicious again. “What is this about? Is Helo in trouble?”

“As far as we know, no,” McGee said. “We're just trying to verify some movements and create a timeline for last night. We spoke to Lieutenant Agathon, and he said that he was with you last night. That true?”

“Helo wouldn't have said we were together all night,” Adama said, looking between the two of them. “You're trying to catch him in a lie, but whatever you're thinking he did, he didn't do. Helo's a good guy.”

“Would you lie for him?”

“No,” Adama said, his voice firm. “Helo and I left the ship together. I persuaded my brother to go out with us, but Jake didn't want to stay out long. He never does. We came back here. I had a few more drinks while we talked, Jake went to bed before I did, and he's at work now. I didn't hear from Helo after we left. I sent a text to see if he'd made it to a hotel okay, but he never answered. Now tell me what this is really about.”

Tony wasn't sure if this guy was really honest, a lousy friend, or the kind of liar that could possibly fool Gibbs' gut. “Do you know Sharon Valerii?”

“I do. She's a newer pilot, came on board just before we shipped out. We call her Boomer. She can't land worth a damn. They keep threatening to assign Helo to her so she'll actually be able to fly.”

“Don't think much of women pilots, do you?”

Adama laughed. “You've got to be kidding me. I thought you were investigators.”

“We are.”

“Then you should know that my wingman is a woman. Kara Thrace. Starbuck. Supposedly the best in the fleet,” Adama said. “If I had a problem with female pilots, I wouldn't have lasted a minute around her. As it is, she and I... Well... Anything I say now will just sound conceited.”

“Such as?” McGee prompted.

“Apollo and Starbuck are the stuff of legend,” Adama said, shrugging. “What does Sharon have to do with anything?”

“She's dead.”

“Damn,” Adama said. “I didn't even know—she was on liberty? I hadn't heard that, but I didn't see her before we left and I was preoccupied anyway. What happened?”

“We're not sure yet. She may have been in the same bar as you, Agathon, and your brother. Did you see her?”

Adama shook his head. “No, but I only left our table once. My turn to buy a round. I... Jake doesn't like the crowds, so I stuck by him. I never saw Sharon. Like I said, I didn't know she was off the ship.”

“Were you aware of her being involved with anyone?” Tony asked, and Adama took a breath, letting it out with a nod.

“Everyone was pretty sure she was sleeping with the chief.”

“So she was breaking regs?”

“I never saw them together,” Adama told them. “It was just this rumor that went around. Scuttlebutt can go either way, but she wasn't given any reprimands that I was aware of, either. I could be wrong. That was just what I heard.”

“Interesting,” Tony said. He figured they needed to make a call to Gibbs. That kind of fraternization could ruin careers. Valerii's boyfriend could have wanted her dead.

Question was—did he do it, or was it someone else?

* * *

Ellie thanked the secretary and walked toward the elevator. She stopped, giving the woman another glance before she touched the button. She waited, and as the other woman gathered up her files, leaving the desk, she made up her mind. The door dinged open, but Ellie turned around, darting past the reception desk and to the office behind it.

She knew that she could always come back later, but she didn't think any of the others—definitely not Gibbs—would have accepted the secretary's brush off. She was still new. She wanted to prove herself. She knew she could do this.

She pushed the door open, startling the man behind the desk. He actually jumped, coming up out of his seat. He pulled his suit jacket closed, fixing the buttons with shaking fingers before looking up at her.

He forced a smile. “I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting anyone. I thought—I know there are meetings this afternoon, but I thought this morning—”

“I don't have an appointment,” she told him, smiling even though this was going to be awkward. At least now she could make up for spilling coffee on him yesterday. “I didn't mean to disturb you, but your secretary didn't even want to ask if you had a few minutes to spare.”

He grimaced. “I have a fairly strict routine.”

“And I don't mean to interrupt it. Again,” she said, watching him frown. “Yesterday? The coffee? That was me. That's not why I'm here, but that was me. I'm—I'm with NCIS. And I was hoping to ask a few questions of you.”

He sat back down, gesturing to the seat across from him. He started rummaging through his desk, searching for something. “I can try and answer, though I'm not sure how I can help you. We don't have any naval contracts despite the company's name. I believe that may be part of the reason for the name—the implication of them—but we're not actually navy. That—that isn't why you're here, is it?”

Ellie shook her head. They couldn't do anything about that, not to her knowledge. “No, it isn't. I wanted to talk to you about Sharon Valerii.”

He shut his desk drawer a bit too abruptly. “I don't believe there's anyone employed here by that name. I can—”

“She was a lieutenant in the navy. A pilot. Assigned to the same ship as Karl Agathon and—”

“I'm sorry. I really don't think I can help you,” Malloy said. “I don't know anything about the navy, even if—I suppose I know a couple people who serve, but I don't see how this has anything to do with them.”

“You don't even know what this is,” Ellie reminded him, getting another grimace. “Though I suppose you could have assumed she was killed—”

“Killed?” Malloy repeated. He swallowed, picking up a pill bottle and trying to open it as his hands shook.

“Yes. Not far from the bar you were at last night. In the next alley, actually, and we were hoping to ask you if—”

The pill bottle went flying out of his hands, the lid coming off as it did, scattering pills all over his desk and down onto the floor. He cursed, lowering his head over his desk and taking several deep breaths.

Ellie reached down and picked up the bottle from where it had rolled near her foot. She looked at the label and frowned. “Darvonex?”

He nodded, rising from the desk to take the bottle back from her. “It's... I have... it's... I have anxiety. I guess that must seem rather obvious.”

She shrugged. “You're not that much more awkward with people than I am, but I wouldn't have thought they'd prescribe Darvonex for you. It's an amphetamine, more likely to increase your anxiety than to relieve it.”

He stared at her. “What?”

She nodded. “I mean, I'm not an expert, but we had a case where a petty officer attacked his CO, almost beat him to death, and it turned out he'd been on a drug—pretty sure this was the one, I'd have to ask Ducky—that made him anxious and combative. He was so paranoid he thought his CO had attacked him and was defending himself.”

Malloy shook his head, putting the bottle back on the desk. “I'm sure it was a different medication. My doctor has had me on this for years, and I'd hardly describe myself as combative.”

She bit her lip. She supposed that was true, but she was almost sure that she was right about the medication. “Well, let me just ask you about last night. You were with Lieutenant Commander Adama and Lieutenant Agathon at the bar?”

“I was with Lee and Helo for a little while, yes,” Malloy said, going back to his desk. “We didn't stay long. We never do. Lee always insists on dragging me out when he's in town, but I'm not very... social. I wanted to leave early.”

“How early is early?”

“As soon as we got there,” Malloy admitted. “We stayed long enough for them both to have a couple drinks. Then I... I insisted on going back home, and Lee went with me. He stays with me when he's in town. No sense making him pay for a motel.”

“And Lieutenant Agathon?”

Malloy frowned. “I don't know. I don't even know that I know who that is.”

Ellie almost laughed. “Um... That's Helo. Helo's his call sign, like Commander Adama's is Apollo. You didn't know that?”

Malloy put a hand over his face. “Lee always calls him Helo. I... I guess I always assumed that was his name. I... Is there anything else you need? I have to... There's a lunch thing and I need to—”

“So you never met Lieutenant Valerii? She never joined the three of you? Never spoke to you?”

“Um...” Malloy swallowed, looking back at his desk and the pills. “Lee says Helo has a girl in every port, and he might have found someone that night after we left. I... I don't know.”

Ellie nodded. “But it was just the three of you before then?”

“We... We have a sort of routine. Two of us get a table, the other gets drinks. If they talked to anyone at the bar when they got drinks, I don't know. I was at the table. I don't—You're wrong. Lee and Helo—they wouldn't... Lee was with me. Helo... He's never seemed... I actually trust Helo—”

“Right now, we are just trying to put together a timeline of her movements that night, trying to find anyone who might have seen or talked to her,” Ellie said, trying to calm him down since he was getting agitated. “Can you be any more specific about the time you left the bar with Commander Adama?”

“No, I—wait, yes. Um... The townhouse has a security system. I had to deactivate it when we got back. That would give you the exact time we were there. Um...” He put a hand to his head. “I'm sorry. It's... There's some sort of app for it on my phone...”

She reached out and touched his arm. He jerked, and she smiled, trying to be reassuring. “Why don't you let me know the time later? You can call or even text it to me.”

She gave him one of her cards, and he nodded, not looking at her. His hands were trembling badly, and she figured she'd done enough damage here. Gibbs or Tony, even McGee might have pushed, but she didn't want to, not when he seemed so upset.

She left, heading to the elevator. She let out a breath as the doors closed behind her, knowing that her team would have been suspicious of all of that—the wrong medication, the anxiety, pretending he didn't know who Agathon was—Malloy would be a suspect.

She should, too, but somehow... she just didn't see it.

* * *

“How can I help you?”

Jake set the bottle on the counter, feeling stupid. In part, he hated how unsettled he'd been by the NCIS agent's visit, as well as their interaction the day before, but then he was also embarrassed by spilling his pills.

He wasn't sure if his current refusal to take his pills was because of what she'd said or because he'd dropped them on the floor, and he didn't like himself for either reason. He trusted his doctor. He had no reason to think that he had the wrong prescription. She was wrong. She was a walking disaster, and he didn't care what she thought.

“You need a refill?”

“I—can you confirm for me that those are the right pills?” Jake asked, getting a frown. “It's just... they spilled.”

The pharmacist shrugged, opening the bottle and knocking a pill into his hand. “Looks like Darvonex to me.”

Jake forced a smile. “Well, that's a relief. I don't know why I thought—I guess it just seemed like something—is this drug typically prescribed for people with anxiety?”

The pharmacist frowned. “Is this actually your prescription?”

Jake nodded. “It's mine. I can show you my driver's license—it's just—someone told me that they wouldn't have prescribed it for that. I didn't know if they were lying or not. It... was an odd conversation.”

The other man shook his head. “I'm not sure who told you that this was for anxiety, but they'd be the one lying. Here. The fact sheet says right here that it can increase anxiety and cause paranoia, sometimes even violent outbursts. Now, would you like to tell me where you really got these pills?”

Jake swallowed, looking at the fact sheet in disbelief. “This can't be right. My doctor—she prescribed this to me. She's had me on it for years. For anxiety. No. This isn't—this isn't possible.”

“Son, your doctor would have to be drunk to prescribe this for anxiety. Especially after the recent bad press,” the pharmacist said, and Jake backed away from the counter. He didn't understand. This couldn't be a trick set up by this woman, could it?

She would have seen his pharmacy on the label of the bottle, but he hadn't gone there because it was close to the house but he was on lunch and went to one close to the office. She couldn't have known. Even if she'd followed him, she wouldn't have known.

Only that... That meant that his doctor had lied to him. That she'd prescribed something she'd known would make his anxiety worse.

But why?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation continues, though with unexpected results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost couldn't write the scene at the end of this chapter. I had started a whole chapter that skipped it, that was how much I thought I was incapable of doing it. I'm not one hundred percent pleased with it, but the scene was too important not to do.

* * *

_“I'm looking for Jake Malloy.”_

_“You found him, though I'm not sure why you're bothering,” Jake said, distracted. He held up a hand, trying to get this thought down on paper before he lost it. There. That was one hell of a closing argument, even if he did say so himself. “Did you need a petition signed or something? If this is about the campus fountain, I already—”_

_“I don't have a petition. I just wanted to see if it was true.”_

_Jake frowned, not sure what any of that meant. He supposed this could be a prank—his roommate didn't think much of how Jake always stayed in, but he had a lot to do, even if he was still years from his degree. “If someone bet you that I had no life, then yes, it's true.”_

_That got a laugh from whoever was at the door. “Not exactly.”_

_“Well, I'm not sure what else I could help you with,” Jake muttered. “My roommate is the embodiment of the college cliché, not me. I can't even say I'm the other stereotype—the one that always studies and has perfect grades. I'm only ahead in one of my classes.”_

_“And yet you're so busy studying you won't even look at me.”_

_“I'm also straight, if that makes any sort of difference,” Jake said, shifting his papers and opening a second book before sighing. “Fine. I give. I have to know what you're doing here.”_

_He turned around and stared. That was all he could do—stare. That was him, only it looked like some kind of prank or joke or something because that was a navy uniform with medals and Jake was a self-prescribed pacifist._

_“Uh...”_

_“That... seems about right,” the other man said. “I mean, I knew she said she'd given one of us away when I was a kid, but I wasn't sure if that was just her drunken raving or not.”_

_Jake frowned, rising. “Excuse me? Who the hell are you?”_

_“Sorry,” the other man said, holding out a hand. “Lee Adama.”_

_“That name means absolutely nothing to me,” Jake told him. “I don't know who put you up to this, but you can go. Take the costume with you and just leave. I don't need this. This kind of prank is not funny and—”_

_“It's not a costume. I'm a pilot in the US Navy,” Adama told him. “And it's not a joke or a prank. I thought it was a longshot, but when someone told me they saw me on campus here, I remembered what she'd said, and I tried anyway. More than one person had trouble seeing Jake Malloy as a military man, though I think I know a couple girls that are interested in you and—”_

_“Stop. Now.”_

_Adama grimaced. “That came out wrong. This isn't... I don't... This is harder than I thought it would be. I was just... I had always figured it was just one of the things she said to hurt me, and I didn't give it much thought. Like my father would have let her get away with giving up a baby—but then again, he was never home and—”_

_“You keep saying that. You think I was this child your mother supposedly gave away? I have a family,” Jake protested. He had sometimes wondered why his parents never had more kids, and he'd asked his mother once—she'd just smiled and said he was all she needed._

_Could he have been adopted? No. This guy was lying. Jake didn't know why, but he was._

_“You have to admit—the resemblance is strong.”_

_“That doesn't mean anything.”_

_“Maybe not,” Adama said, “but it's still worth looking into, isn't it?”_

* * *

“Got something for me, Duck?” Gibbs asked, taking out his phone after leaving the bridge. His talk with the captain had gotten him nowhere, not that he'd thought he'd have much to say about Valerii. The XO was another possibility, though he'd left the ship after his watch last night and would have to be tracked down.

“I do indeed, Jethro,” Ducky told him. “I have not formally concluded my autopsy, but I thought you should know that the wound in our lieutenant's abdomen may not have been what we assumed when we found her early this morning.”

“That's not what killed her?”

“Oh, I still believe it was,” Ducky said. “No, I think, in addition to being fatal, it was in part done to obscure something else.”

Gibbs frowned. “The hell does that mean?”

“I found several superficial wounds in the area, seemingly as part of a design.”

Gibbs stopped. “Made before or after she died?”

“Before,” Ducky said, firm on that note. “While the cuts were superficial, they did bleed. I have asked for a tox screen—this woman may have been drugged before she died in order to facilitate her killer in this work.”

“So he drugged her, cut her, and then shot her?”

“I cannot be certain yet that it was a male,” Ducky insisted. “I am, however, having pictures of the design carved into her side sent to you and the others. Perhaps it has some kind of significance to someone on board that ship.”

Gibbs nodded. He'd make sure McGee did a search to see if the pattern showed up anywhere else. “What else?”

“There are no marks of hesitation within the design,” Ducky said. “Either our killer used some kind of stencil to ensure the precise placement—”

“Or he's done this before.”

* * *

“You Kara Thrace?”

She smiled, leaning back in her chair. She looked the NCIS agent over, wondering if they'd sent the one that looked like an MP on purpose. She wouldn't have been surprised. They always figured that she had a problem with authority, and she did, but then she wouldn't say the XO on this ship was worth anything. She knew more useful creatures attached to the bottom of the ship.

“I am,” Kara said, eying the hair and trying to decide his age. “What can I do for NCIS?”

He sat down across from her. “You knew NCIS was here?”

“It's not that big a ship, even if it's mostly empty,” Kara said, shrugging. She'd gotten the short stick this time around, stuck on board for two whole days while the others got liberty. “Should I pretend I don't know why you're here?”

“Why am I here?”

She snorted. “I assume because you got the short stick, too. You here about the thing with Sharon and her plane boss?”

“That who Valerii was involved with?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Like it was any kind of secret. And you're here, aren't you? That says it all, though for some reason I figured they were letting her get away with it. Don't know why. They wouldn't have let me do that.”

“No?”

Shaking her head, Kara leaned across the table. “You've got my file, don't you? How many times have I been up for drunk and disorderly? How many times have I gotten reprimanded for having a problem with authority? You know how many write ups she has? Not one. They didn't do a damned thing to her.”

“That piss you off?”

Kara leaned back. “What do you think? I'm the best pilot on the ship, I'm as good at cards as I am at flying, and I'm a girl. There's a lot of people that have issues with that. I can't keep a RIO, or if I do, I'm frakking him—since one way or another I'm the biggest frakking slut on this ship.”

The agent gave her an appraising stare. “There isn't anything in the file on that.”

Kara knew there wasn't. She wasn't stupid enough to hook up with anyone on the ship even if the whole world seemed to think she was sleeping with Lee and if not Lee, then Helo. She stuck to drunken hookups on liberty, which was part of the reason she wanted off the damned ship, but no, she'd had to go mouth off to the XO right before they docked.

“And, what, this witch hunt is because Sharon pointed the finger, trying to get others in trouble because she didn't want to get in trouble for breaking fraternization rules?” Kara asked. “Go ahead and ask. No, I didn't sleep with Lee. I also haven't slept with Helo.”

The agent shook his head. “Wasn't gonna ask. Not here about her fraternization. Not unless that's the reason she died.”

Kara sat up, staring at him. “Sharon's dead?”

He nodded. “She was found outside a bar early this morning.”

“Damn,” Kara said, trying to make sense of that one. She had been angry with Sharon off and on for the crap she seemed to get away with, but Kara hadn't wanted her dead, either. “How'd she die?”

“Shot.”

“Someone killed her?” Kara grimaced. “You think it was the chief?”

“According to the records, he was on the ship all night. Same as you.”

Kara frowned. “Why are you talking to me, then? I wasn't there. I didn't know any of her plans. Not sure why she'd go to a bar unless she and the chief had a fight, but then again, maybe she wasn't just the reg breaking type.”

“What do you know about Lieutenant Agathon?”

“Helo's a friend. I keep telling him he should fly with me because there's no way Lee would be as good as he is if he didn't have Helo backing him, but he says he's not that crazy,” Kara answered. “You think he had something to do with it? That's crazy. I mean, Helo has a reputation, girl in every port kind of guy, but that's not the same. If a girl says no, he respects the no.”

“And you know that from personal experience?”

She didn't want to answer that. Or think about it. It wasn't like she hadn't thrown herself at Helo or Lee more than once over the years when she was drunk, but both of them had turned her down when she did. Sometimes it stung. Sometimes it reminded her why she never went on liberty with them if she could avoid it.

“Helo wouldn't have killed Sharon.”

“He was in the bar next to the alley where she was killed.”

“So were hundreds of other people, I bet. It wasn't Helo.”

“Then was it Adama?”

Kara laughed. “You have got to be frakking kidding me. Lee? He's so by-the-book he can't even imagine breaking military code. Not that I haven't tried—I got him in for a couple D&Ds, but then the great god Zeus intervened, and he didn't serve brig time. I did.”

“Zeus?”

“Lee's dad,” Kara muttered. Everyone knew that one, too. “Lee's Apollo. That makes Adama Zeus. Though none of us have really met him. The captain threatened to invite him a couple times. Think Lee about had a nervous breakdown.”

“That high-strung?”

Kara shook her head. “Lee is a damn perfectionist. He holds himself to impossible standards, ones we all figure are his dad's. It's not like he hasn't been in that man's shadow all his life. He can't stand failing.”

“That something he could have taken out on Valerii?”

That made Kara laugh again. “Funny. Because Lee so can't handle rejection. Right. You know that he got the call sign because of how he looks, right? He could get anyone, and he was not hung up on Sharon.”

“What about his brother?”

“Zak? He doesn't even know Sharon. He's over in California, living next to the beach and making art. Huge disappointment to the old man, but then he's got Lee to carry the legacy,” Kara said, trying not to be bitter about it. Sure, Zak would have been below her in rank, and it would have been a mess, but if Lee hadn't taken the hit for his brother and stayed in the navy, Zak wouldn't have left. He wouldn't have found someone else in California and ended up settling down way before his older brother.

“Not that brother,” the NCIS agent said, and Kara frowned. “The other one.”

“You're joking, right? Lee only has one brother.”

* * *

“Remind me next time just to get the address tattooed somewhere,” Helo said, and Lee rolled his eyes as he stepped back, letting the other man into the townhouse. “You think the ladies will think it's sexy if I get it on my ass?”

“I think it says a lot about you that you would get it on your ass,” Lee muttered, shaking his head. He knew Karl was just screwing with him. “How drunk did you get last night?”

“Not the fun kind,” Helo muttered, going over to the couch. “I really did think I'd made progress with this redhead I met. Her name was—crap, I don't remember—but we were having a good time, and I swore we left together. Woke up alone, though.”

Lee shook his head. “That is the story of your life.”

“And why Kara always makes fun of me,” Helo agreed. He leaned back against the couch, closing his eyes. “You two make it okay last night?”

Lee sighed. “Depends on what you consider okay. He was quiet on the drive back, and he seemed fine, but when he tried to get out of the car to get inside, he froze up. He couldn't move. I finally talked him inside, but as soon as he did, he broke down, almost spent the night next to the door. He must have slept it off because he was up before I was and back at the office.”

Helo grimaced. “Well, you know him. He does function better if he sticks to his schedule.”

Lee shook his head. “I hate that thing. He shouldn't be stuck like that. You know when I met him, he said he had no life, but this—this is having no life. He gets up in the morning, spends a precise five minutes brushing his teeth, fifteen minutes in the shower, twenty minutes dressing, thirty minutes eating, and leaves the house at the same time. He goes to his office, he spends his mornings the same way, only has appointments in the afternoon, and then as soon as he's done at work, he goes home and he locks himself in here like it's some kind of fortress.”

“It's not. It's just an alarm system.”

Lee snorted. “They wanted to put cameras in every room. That put him back in the hospital.”

Helo winced. “Can't say I blame him. Being watched like that is just creepy.”

“Yeah.”

“They ask you about Sharon?”

Lee nodded. “They did. I thought at first they were here for you—”

“Aw, Apollo. You care. I'm so touched.”

“Don't. That sounded way too much like Kara,” Lee muttered. “Why would anyone kill Sharon? She was new. She did have that thing with the chief, but that's not worth killing someone over.”

“The chief is a lifer, though, even if she isn't. Wasn't.”

Lee shook his head. “She wouldn't have gone to flight school if she wasn't planning on sticking around.”

“Like you are one to talk. You almost gave it all up.”

Lee shrugged. “I don't know. For a minute there, it seemed like a good idea. I'd always been interested in the law. There Jake was, already on his way to the degree, and when he spoke about it, he was just so passionate—he reminded me of my grandfather in a lot of ways. Not all of them. Jake had ethics. My grandfather... didn't.”

“Imagine if you'd done it,” Helo said. “Twins running a law firm together.”

“Yeah, well, Jake gave all that up after the attack,” Lee said, rising. He wanted a drink, and he knew there was a liquor cabinet here somewhere, and he was going to need something to keep his temper under control. It still angered him, all that had been taken away from his brother in such a short time. Jake had sworn he wasn't just going to be some meaningless part of his family's business, he wasn't going to take a cent from them, but instead, he was doing exactly what they wanted while hiding behind their money.

It was wrong. It was all wrong.

* * *

The door slammed shut, and Karl looked at Lee, frowning. Lee rose, reaching into the drawer, about to take out his gun when his brother stumbled into the room. Jake was a mess, hair every which way, clothes disheveled, with his suit jacket and tie missing. Karl didn't like this one bit. Jake pretty much had OCD when it came to his appearance, and him being like this was never good.

“Jake?” Lee asked, shutting the drawer again and crossing over to him. “I know I said that you needed to do a few things out of your schedule, but I thought we agreed they were small things. Not you coming home in the middle of the day.”

Karl gave him a look, but then Lee was able to get close to him. As soon as Karl tried to move, Jake jumped back away from both of them, smacking right into the wall.

Lee held up a hand, warning Karl to stay back, which was now his plan anyway. “We talked about trying out going to the book store or maybe having a different meal on Tuesdays—”

“Who doesn't love a Taco Tuesday?” Karl added, and Lee seemed to be fighting a smile even as he reached his brother.

“It's not possible.”

“Tacos are totally possible,” Helo said, and that time Lee glared at him.

“What's not?” Lee asked, taking up a spot next to his brother. He grimaced, and Helo wasn't sure what that was about until Jake spoke again, the slurring of his voice obvious.

“What... see... she... said... about... the drugs...” Jake said, shaking his head. “Not right. Can't be. Shoe... should... should just... lock... myself up... for good.”

Lee put his hand on his brother's knees, pushing them down from his face. He looked into his eyes even as he shook his head. “No. That's not the answer. You never wanted that to be the answer, and I'm not going to let it be. Those bastards do not get to win. They don't get to do this to you. Maybe they never found them, but that does not mean they win. Not about this.”

Jake shook his head so fast it should make him sick. “No. No. They... He... He said what...see… she said but... see... can't... see... I don't...”

“You're not making any sense,” Lee said, trying to contain his frustration. “Why were you drinking? You know how that messes with your medication. You wouldn't even do that when you were with us, so why would you do it alone and when you were driving?”

“Drank in the car... Was suppose... fix things...”

“More like put you in a coma,” Karl said, going over to join them. “Come on. Let's get you off the floor, get you some—”

“No. Can't save me. Just... Just crazy. See... Saw... See conspiracies everywhere. She... she said drugs not... she said... and he said... but if that true... It's all wrong... he... someone... it's poison. Have to lock away. Have to stop...”

Lee shook his head. “No. You don't have to—”

Jake bolted past him, almost knocking him over on his way to the bathroom. Karl helped Lee up, and Lee ran after his brother, stopped by the door. Karl tried to ignore that feeling in his stomach, that same one that came right before an engagement with the enemy, one where they could lose their lives. He had to be wrong about this. Jake was not doing what he thought he was.

Lee pounded on the door. “Jake, open the door. Come on. Open the door.”

Nothing. Lee slammed himself into it, shaking it, but not knocking it open. He backed off, doing it again. Karl stopped him before his third try. He didn't even have to say it. They hit the door at the same time, forcing it open.

Jake was on the floor, not moving.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee confronts NCIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I thought I had this chapter all pinned down and written.
> 
> I didn't. I had to go back and fix a lot. More than I'd care to admit. I'm at the point where I look at it and say I can't make it any better, but that's probably not true.

* * *

_“Damn.”_

_Helo didn't think he dared look at Lee. Granted, he'd known Lee long enough to question the existence of this brother, but one thing that no one had ever doubted was Lee's devotion to Zak. If the figure on that bed, hooked up to all of those machines, actually was Lee's brother, then... Well, nothing good could come of this. If the guy died, Lee would be a mess, forever blaming himself for being at sea when this happened. He would go hunting for whoever was responsible until there was nothing left of them._

_“They tell you what happened?”_

_Lee shook his head. “Not much. The investigation is 'on-going.'”_

_“And none of them was smart enough to pick up on the fact that you will smack the next person that says that to you?” Helo asked, almost getting a smile out of Lee. He still found this hard to believe, and it wasn't like he could see the whole twin thing with this guy covered in this many bandages. Helo was pretty sure there wasn't a part of him that wasn't injured in some way._

_Lee hadn't been kidding about them not knowing how his brother was even alive._

_“I could always try and charm it out of one of them,” Helo offered, and Lee looked at him. He shrugged. “Come on. You know I can.”_

_“And if all the detectives are men?”_

_Helo grimaced. “That's a little harder, but we could always get Kara—”_

_“No.”_

* * *

“Jake, look at me,” Lee begged, desperate to wake his brother. He refused to do this. His mother had done this to him, made him think she was dying every time she drank too much, and he hated her for it. He did. This was different. Jake actually was in a dangerous place, too close to the edge, always, and he had been since he'd been put in that hospital bed. Lee hated being on the outside of this, unable to help, to stop the pain. Jake was locked in a horrible cycle, unable to move past what had happened to him, unable to find peace—mostly because he still didn't remember enough of it and was tormented by what he did.

“Come on, Jake,” Helo muttered from behind Lee. “He's just passed out, right? He was drinking, and it hit him hard because he hasn't really had anything to drink in years.”

Lee hoped so. He wasn't much of a medic—he knew what little he did because of the navy and because of his brother, and if it was just that, then this would be okay. A lot of panic for nothing, but Jake would live, and that was the important part. “Jake, wake up.”

Jake moaned, but his eyes didn't open. Lee wasn't sure what to think. He nudged his brother, trying again to wake him. “Open your eyes, buddy. Do it. Come on, now. You're okay. Just show us you're okay.”

With a groan, Jake tried to roll over away from him. Lee moved to help him only to back away when his brother started puking all over the floor.

“Gross as that is, it should help,” Helo said, and Lee grimaced. In part, he was right. The more alcohol they got out of Jake, the better, but it was hard to watch. Lee hated feeling helpless, but that was all he did with his brother. He couldn't do any of the stuff that actually mattered, and he wasn't here enough to make a difference. Calls, emails, texts, they just weren't enough, not when Jake was this bad.

“We better get him up and out of here before he chokes on it or something.”

“Nice image,” Helo muttered. “All right. Prop him up for a second. Let's clean him up before we take him out of here.”

Lee nodded, leaning his brother against the counter. He rose, getting a washcloth and wetting it. “I don't understand what happened. Jake knows better than to mix his medication. He never does. Something must have happened.”

Helo knelt next to Jake as Lee wiped down his face. “You saw him when he left for work, right? He was fine then, wasn't he?”

Lee nodded, rinsing out the rag in the sink. He needed to deal with the floor, but that could wait until after they moved Jake. “He was in a hurry—late so he was off his schedule and worried about it—but I did get him to stay for one cup of coffee anyway. He said that meant no lunch, which I rolled my eyes at—I guess the point is, he was fine when he left.”

Jake slumped to the side, and Helo caught him, ready to start lifting. Lee took his brother's feet and picked him up off the floor. Helo backed down the hall and toward the couch. He hit the table when he got close, swearing. He went around the chair and almost dumped Jake onto the couch.

Lee looked around, knowing that there usually was a blanket around here for the couch. Unless Jake's mother had been by, it should be here. She didn't feel it was appropriate, but Jake kept it around anyway. Helo passed him one from the back of the recliner.

“I hate to say it,” Helo began, sitting down again. “I know it's going to upset you, but we both got visits from NCIS today, asking us about a murder. And there were three of us in that bar.”

“Damn it,” Lee said, shaking his head. “I should have—I didn't think they'd talk to Jake. He doesn't even know Sharon.”

“Yeah, but we do, and they probably wanted to confirm what we told them about last night.”

Lee shook his head, hand balling into a fist as he looked at his brother. “If they're responsible for this—”

“You don't know that for sure.”

Lee snorted, heading for the door. He did. He could get the agent's name from Jake's secretary, and he wasn't letting them get away with this, any of it.

“Apollo, don't do anything stupid. That's Kara's job, remember? Lee?”

* * *

“Hey, Bish. You finally manage to eat yourself into a calorie coma?”

Ellie blinked, looking up from her desk and trying to pull her thoughts together. She didn't know why she'd allowed herself to get so distracted, but her mind had been on Jake Malloy since leaving his office. Something about that whole exchange bothered her. She knew she was obsessing a little, and probably about the wrong part of the case, but she was still trying to fit together everything she'd seen with the pieces her mind wanted to give her.

She bit her lip, still considering the way they'd met the first time, that disastrous encounter in the book store and how their conversation in his office had gone. He'd said he was on Darvonex for his anxiety, but that could not be right. She'd checked when she got back to her desk—it was definitely contraindicated.

If he wasn't lying about the medication, then the stuff he was taking to make him calm was probably making him worse, and that could explain everything about his behavior.

Only if he wasn't—then he could have met up with Valerii outside that bar, killed her, and everything that was kind of almost charming about him and his nervousness was creepy and calculated.

“Bishop?”

She shook her head. “Sorry. I was compiling information on the accident that killed Valerii's parents and—”

“And the danish made that all go away for some moment of instant brilliance?”

Ellie grimaced. “Not exactly. It made me think about something that still doesn't make sense, and I was about to ask Ducky about—”

“You,” an angry voice said, rounding the corner to loom over her desk. The tension in his body said he was a few seconds from breaking something. “What the hell did you say to my brother?”

“Adama, back off,” Tony said as he started around his desk. Ellie blinked, momentarily thrown by the fact that the brothers with different names were definitely twins.

She shook it off, pulling herself together. “I don't know what you mean. I mean—yes, I know who your brother is, that is very obvious now that I'm looking at you—”

“You did this,” he said, hands coming down hard on her desk, and she didn't know why anything was left on it with how furious he was. “What did you say? I haven't seen him like this since it first happened. He's talking about having himself committed, and I almost thought—what the _frak_ did you say to him?”

“Easy, big guy,” Tony said, and Ellie frowned again because compared to him, Adama wasn't really that big. He was shorter. Maybe more muscular. Definitely angrier. “Let's just back away from everything on Bishop's very full desk and calm down for a second.”

“Calm down?” Adama demanded. “She made my brother suicidal, and I should just be calm about that?”

“Wow, Bishop,” Tony said. “Never thought you had that kind of power over men.”

She sighed. “All I said was that the Darvonex couldn't have been for his anxiety. You remember, Tony. The Morton case. The man attacked his CO because of the medication he was on—”

“And this guy's brother is on the same stuff? Morton almost killed his CO.”

Adama shook his head. “That's not Jake. He still doesn't understand how I am in the military. He wouldn't hurt anyone. You somehow convinced him that he would, though. You have to be lying about Darvonex. That's why he said he was going crazy and had to lock himself up because it wasn't possible.”

“What isn't possible?” Gibbs said, and Adama turned to face him. Something about Gibbs managed to do that, make everyone stand at attention, even if they weren't military or would have outranked him if they were.

“Nothing,” Adama ground out. He gave Ellie a warning look. “Stay away from my brother.”

“I didn't do anything to him—”

“Why don't we talk about your lies instead?” Gibbs countered, and Adama frowned at him. “Like how no one on the ship knows about you having any brother other than the one named Zak who is across the country.”

“It's—that's not what you think.”

Gibbs shrugged. “Then tell me what it is.”

Adama started to shake his head. “Jake has nothing to do with this. Not that Helo or I do, either, but he should never have been involved in the first place. You had questions for us, fine. Jake isn't navy, he never met Sharon, and he needs to be left alone.”

“Except,” Ellie began, hating herself for what she was about to say if Adama was right about how much she'd upset his brother. “You're twins. So someone could easily have assumed that he was you or vice versa.”

“They're the twins?” Tony asked. “Damn, that's disappointing.”

Gibbs gave him a look before focusing on Adama. “I want an explanation. Now.”

* * *

Kara figured there were two ways she could handle Lee lying to her. She could confront him directly, or she could go behind his back. Asking Zak would have been simple, and he might have been willing to tell her despite how things ended between them, but that was half the problem. She knew Zak. If he knew anything about another brother, he would have told her about it years ago.

That meant, if the NCIS agent was right about Lee somehow having another brother that he'd never told her about, he wasn't just keeping it from her.

He was keeping it from the old man and his brother.

Still, Kara knew Lee. She knew almost everything about him. The few pieces she didn't know were always things she figured that she didn't want to know, but a brother? That was something she wanted to know. More importantly, she wanted to know why he didn't tell her.

That meant getting in his face, which she wasn't shy about doing, and now that she'd been given liberty, she could. Trouble was, she had no idea where Lee was, and he wasn't answering his damned phone. She'd gone through her brain, trying to remember what Lee might have said about any hotels he'd stayed at when he was in town, but he'd never mentioned one. Helo had. He'd talked about dozens of dumps over the years.

Helo. That was it. She might not be able to find Lee, but she could always track down Helo. All it took was a bar and a girl, right?

Then again, he did have a phone, and she knew he'd answer it. Helo wasn't stupid enough to ignore her when she called.

She grabbed her bag and headed out.

* * *

“Tell me about the brother,” Gibbs said, escorting Adama into interrogation. He offered the other man a chair, but Adama didn't take it. He went to the glass, looking at it. “Feel free to start with the obvious.”

Adama frowned. “The what?”

“Why don't you have the same name? Why does everyone on your ship think that you have one brother named Zak and no others? How is that possible when Malloy is your damned twin?” Gibbs shrugged. “Take your pick, but answer them all.”

Adama shook his head. “I should have listened to Helo. You're just going to make this worse.”

“That's a good possibility since I don't know what it is you're trying to hide,” Gibbs told him. “You want a secret kept, this isn't the way to go about it. Secrets work best when you keep them to yourself. If you can't do that, only tell one other person.”

Adama laughed. “Well, that's about what I did. And I wouldn't have, if I'd been given the choice.”

“You don't sound ashamed of your brother. You're protecting him. Why?” Gibbs asked, taking a chair for himself. “What makes you think he needs it?”

Adama turned away from the glass. “Jake has severe PTSD.”

Gibbs studied him. That didn't fit with the official press releases on the company, not with any of the surface details about Malloy. Then again, Adama did want to keep a secret. “He's a businessman. Unless the two of you switched places and he used to be in your position—”

“You don't have to be a figher pilot or any kind of military to get PTSD. You can get it from a car crash.”

“You're saying his came from a car crash?”

Adama shook his head. “No. It might even be easier for him if it did, he'd be over it by now, but he's not. Look, this has nothing to do with Sharon's death. I—I don't introduce Jake to people from the ship. It's not a good idea. Jake never met her. So you can drop this and leave him out of it.”

Gibbs snorted. The more Adama pushed for that, the more it seemed like his brother had to be involved. “You're not helping his case. Either tell me what the hell happened, or I'll go get the answer from him.”

“Don't,” Adama said. He sighed. “It... When Jake was in college, he was... mugged. I guess you can call it that.”

“Mugged?”

“Well, when they ditched his body two days later, he had nothing, so...” Adama said, shaking his head, still defensive. “He didn't see his attackers. He doesn't remember those two days. Whoever did that to him got away with it. They're still out there. Free.”

Adama almost hit the wall, pulling his hand back in time. He started pacing instead.

Gibbs understood the anger. He'd be pissed. He'd had to hunt down the man that hurt his family. If this was someone connected to that attack on his brother, then Adama probably did it. Gibbs couldn't say he believed that Valerii was involved. Not because she was a woman—but because she probably wasn't old enough at the time. He'd confirm that when he was done here.

“You think this has anything to do with Valerii's death?”

Adama stopped, looking at him. “You mean... was it the same person? I... I don't know. I wouldn't think so. Jake and Sharon have nothing in common—”

“Except you.”

Adama winced. “Maybe. Still... It doesn't really fit. Jake was held for an entire weekend. Sharon was only off the ship for a few hours. We just got to port yesterday.”

Gibbs nodded. The likelihood of the two cases being connected was slim. He wouldn't rule it out completely, but so far none of the pieces fit. One case involved a male victim, the other a female, one took days, the other hours, and the only connection was Adama. “You haven't answered any of the other questions. Why doesn't anyone know about your brother?”

Adama rolled his eyes. “You were a marine, right? Don't you know how fast rumors travel on a ship? If even one person besides Helo knew, everyone would know. Jake's life would be even more of a nightmare. Not only would everyone give him crap for being Apollo's brother, but if my dad knew...”

“He doesn't?”

“Jake and I were born during that time in my father's life when the navy meant more to him than his family—oh, wait, he's still in that phase,” Adama muttered. “My mother refused to do twins on her own, so she gave one away.”

Gibbs leaned back in his chair. That was a hell of a lot of baggage, and he wasn't sure he wanted to get into it, not if it wasn't going to help his case. “How long have you known?”

“I found Jake not long before he was attacked.”

Interesting. Not his case, but pretty damned interesting.

* * *

“Ugh. I am never drinking again.”

Karl laughed. He'd heard that before, but usually from a different brother. He turned back from the television, facing the one that was only starting to wake up from his bout of alcohol induced psychosis. “That bad, huh?”

“I vaguely remember... a lot of slurred words,” Jake said, putting a hand to his head as he sat up, wincing. “Not sure they made sense. And maybe... did I puke? I think I puked.”

“Yeah,” Karl said, not wanting to get into that too much. At least Jake sounded almost normal again. “Kind of funny you being that much of a lightweight when your brother can actually outdrink Kara if he wants. I think he's the only man on record who has.”

“Not sure he should be proud of that,” Jake muttered, leaning his head back against the couch. “Where is he? Please tell me he didn't do anything stupid.”

“You know your brother,” Helo said, watching Jake wince. He shuddered. Karl got up and grabbed the blanket off the floor, spreading it out and wrapping it around him.

“Aren't you supposed to stop him?”

“I made sure nothing happened to you,” Helo said, knowing it was a poor compromise. He hadn't wanted to let Lee go since he was probably going to end up in a fight with the NCIS agents that would cost him his career, but he couldn't leave Jake alone, either. That whole outburst earlier was scary as hell. Helo had never seen Jake like that, though from what Lee said, it was like that just after the attack.

“I... I'm sorry,” Jake said, pulling the blanket around him. “I just... I couldn't understand... It... How could some random pharmacist be in on it with that agent?”

“What agent? DiNozzo or McGee?”

Jake frowned. “That wasn't her name. I don't—what was her name? I should remember it. That was before I had anything to drink.”

“Don't sweat it,” Karl advised. “You've had a rough enough day.”

Jake shook his head. “It's not... I have to make sense of it. If I can't...”

“What are we making sense of?” Karl asked, getting up. He figured water couldn't hurt, and he needed to be doing something. “Lee was convinced that NCIS set you off, which it sounds like they did, but he didn't really stop to find out how. Or why.” 

“I don't... It couldn't be any kind of collusion between her and the pharmacist. She couldn't know I'd go there. Even if she was the one with the book... That doesn't matter. That was the book store. Not the pharmacist. It wasn't the same,” Jake said. “And if it wasn't that kind of conspiracy, does that mean that my doctor... No. I can't...”

“I'm getting you a drink—just water. I want you to drink it and try to stay calm,” Karl advised, which made Jake snort. That wasn't much help, but Helo didn't know how to keep the other man from freaking out right into another possible suicide attempt. “Forget the drugs and the other stuff. This agent was a woman?”

Jake looked at him. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope. You know me. Always up for a story about a pretty girl,” Karl said, playing up the act. He wasn't actually that bad, even Lee agreed on that, but Jake didn't know him that well, so it was easy to twist that into something that was distracting him, which seemed to be working, actually.

“How do you even know she's pretty?”

“Even you don't get this flustered over a woman if she's not pretty,” Karl told him, getting a glare for that one. “Come on, Jake. You didn't tell us that you ran into her the day before.”

“She spilled coffee on me. It was not my best hour.” Jake leaned his head back against the chair. “I haven't seen one of those since college.”

“Don't be like that. You run a multimillion dollar international company.”

Jake snorted. “I do not. I'm a figurehead that doesn't even appear for the token public appearances because they stress me into panic attacks. I see people on a strict, prearranged schedule. I don't go out at night. I hide in my office for most of the day, and I can only have meetings in the afternoon because I'm one step away from the looney bin. A step I think I took today.”

“You sound pretty rational to me,” Karl said. “In fact, for what you did earlier, you seem pretty calm. Not saying you're too calm. I'm just saying that you seem... better, actually.”

Jake sighed. “I threw up the alcohol, remember?”

“Which if you hadn't and hadn't kind of passed out afterward, Lee would have dragged you right to the hospital instead of going off to confront NCIS.”

“And that is a good thing... why?”

Helo laughed. “You have a point. Still, you might see how things go off those pills. If they're as bad as you think, then you should get a lot better off of them.”

“When are you both going to accept that I'm just... not going to get better?”

“Never.”

Jake groaned and pulled the blanket over his head.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NCIS uncovers a pattern in more than one sense of the word, and Kara meets Jake with some interesting consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been trying to reach a good point for this reveal, and it just didn't happen. I'm not sure why. It is frustrating sometimes to find the right pace, and I never seem to be good at that, at least not to me.
> 
> I was trying to be a bit creative with things, probably failed, but I liked it a little, what I did with the case.

* * *

_“So tell me,” Malloy said as he sat down across from Lee. The bar didn't have many tables, but he'd claimed this one and glowered everyone away for the past hour. This had not gone anything like he'd planned, but then he wasn't expecting one wild claim about him looking just like some nerd law student here to lead him to his twin. “How is this possible?”_

_“I thought you said it wasn't,” Lee reminded him, lifting his drink to his lips. “Told me where to shove it, even.”_

_Malloy shrugged. “You were standing there telling me that I was not only your brother but I'd been thrown away like garbage—”_

_“Trust me. I think you got the better end of the deal,” Lee muttered, shaking his head. He wouldn't have wanted to grow up without Zak, though there were times he hated him because his younger brother just didn't seem to understand what it was actually like. He didn't see the problems. He didn't see how like his mother he was. That was the worst part._

 _Or maybe that was knowing that Lee was just like his father._

_“What, because my family has money?” Malloy snorted. “You actually know what she said when I asked her if there was even a chance that I was adopted? No, don't. It's not worth repeating.”_

_Lee set his glass down. “She admitted it?”_

_“The things she said about my father's ability to produce children are things no one ever wants to hear,” Malloy said, taking Lee's glass. He finished it off, shaking his head. “So we're brothers. I guess. Not sure what the hell that means.”_

_“Me, either,” Lee admitted. “I just... I thought that I wasn't going to find anything here, that it was just one of those things... People say you look like someone, and nine times out of ten, it's not even close to true. This time—it's like a damned mirror.”_

_Malloy sighed. “I always kind of wondered if I wasn't there just to... to have someone to pass the company off to—I told them I didn't want it and they just... It was like the thought never occurred to them. Like they thought they'd picked a child who would do everything they said even though they didn't even raise me themselves.”_

_“They disinherit you?”_

_Malloy laughed. “That's the funny thing. No. They didn't. I think they're still under this impression that law school is some lark of mine, that I'll change my mind, and even if I don't, that degree looks nice on the letterhead, so why would they stop me?”_

_“A law degree isn't something just for a letterhead.”_

_“That's what I said.” Malloy shrugged. “I'm still not sure what branch I want—not business, not environmental—maybe trial...”_

_“Just don't end up like Grandpa.”_

_“What?”_

_“Joseph Adama? Our grandfather? The law corrupted him.”_

_Malloy shook his head. “I think I need another drink. Or a bottle. Or ten.”_

_“Wow,” Lee said, and Malloy frowned at him. “Alcoholism really does run in our family.”_

* * *

Kara figured the address had to be wrong. No way this was where her friend was. She knew Helo. He was a great guy, really, the sort of guy that would make someone a great husband and father someday, but he didn't go to the kind of bars where the good girls looking for all of that went. He found girls more like her, and that was a problem. Kara didn't do nice. She didn't do settling down.

She did not belong in a place like this.

She knocked on the door anyway. Maybe Karl had figured out a way to fool the app she had that could track his phone, but she'd never figured he would—since the whole reason she had that app was because he always lost the damned thing. Lee had it, too, though Karl tended to annoy Kara with requests to use it, not him.

The door opened, and she grinned at the look on Karl's face. 

“Kara, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you, too, Helo,” Kara said, folding her arms over her chest. “I suppose that means you think you're not going to let me in.”

He shook his head. “I'm not kidding. What are you doing here?”

“Lee's not answering my calls, and I figured if anyone knew where he was, it would be his RIO,” Kara said, shrugging. “So, where is he? Because I owe him a few things, and he is not weaseling out of this one.”

“Gods, Kara, I am not helping you with whatever fight you think you have to have with Lee. Sometimes I think it would be a good idea to let the two of you just fight this thing between you out, but no. Hell, no. Not now,” Karl said, starting to shut the door on her. 

She stuck her foot in to block it. She shoved the door back open and forced her way inside. Stepping into the entrance, she looked around. The neighborhood was nice, but this place was even fancier on the inside than the outside.

“Wow,” she said, passing from the marble tile to the carpet she was sure she was going to ruin. “You definitely scored last night, didn't you?”

Karl glared at her. “It's not what you think, and you really shouldn't be here. Come on, Kara. Whatever your beef with Lee is, this is not the place for it—”

“Not the place?” Kara snorted, shaking her head. She gestured to the couch. “How's it not the place when Lee's asleep on your new girlfriend's couch?”

Karl winced. “That isn't—”

“What, did you two find a threesome last night?” Kara asked, heading for the couch. She was going to enjoy this—and Lee was going to pay for lying to her. “I knew you two were close, but I didn't think you were _that_ close.”

“Kara, don't—”

“So, Lee, is Helo as bad in bed as the girls all say?” Kara leaned into him to ask, shaking him a little as she did.

Lee freaked. He shoved at her in a panic, his hands flailing around and one hand connecting with her jaw. She swore, trying to hold him still. He screamed, kicking at her as she managed to get him pinned. 

“Get off of me. Get off!”

Lee's foot caught her in the side just as Karl grabbed her and pulled her back. Lee fell off the couch and scrambled away from her, hitting the table in his hurry to get away from her. Karl let her go, putting himself between her and Lee.

“Stay there,” Karl warned her. He turned back to Lee. “Jake, easy. Easy now. It's okay. She's not going to hurt you. Kara is... Well, she is dangerous, but she's also a good friend of Lee's. No one hurts him but her. Trust me on that one.”

“She... Not a woman. Was... a man. Two... At least two...”

“That was years ago,” Karl told him. “Look at me. Please. You're in your house. You're safe. Kara is going to sit right there while we get you some... tea or something. Something to calm you down. You think you can move?”

Lee shook his head. “Can't... Can't see...”

“I'm not sure where your glasses are,” Karl told him. “Just stay put, and I'll look for a spare pair. You want the blanket back or not?”

Lee nodded, shaking. Karl grabbed the blanket from the couch next to Kara and put it around the man on the floor. He stepped back, and Kara rose, grabbing hold of his arm.

“What the hell is going on?” Kara demanded. “First this NCIS agent says Lee has a brother he doesn't have, and now Lee's acting like—That's not Lee, is it?”

Karl shook his head. “Say hello to Lee's twin. Jake. Actually, since you just gave him a really bad panic attack—don't. Just leave him alone.”

* * *

“We're not supposed to interrupt him in interrogation,” McGee said, frowning at the door. Abby gave him a look. This was important. Gibbs needed to know what they'd found. This wasn't something that should wait. That was why they'd printed it out and brought it all the way up here, why she had left her lab to come with him. She had wanted to wait until Gibbs came down, but since he didn't and was still in interrogation, she figured it was better if they didn't wait.

“If we thought telling Gibbs this could wait, we would still be down in my lab,” she reminded him, reaching over to knock on the door. She had almost done it when it opened, and there was Gibbs. She forced a smile. “Gibbs.”

“What you got, Abs?” Gibbs said, walking out and pulling the door shut behind him.

“We ran a search on all law enforcement databases, looking for similar crimes,” McGee began, and Gibbs just looked at him. “I know that's fairly standard procedure, but Ducky told us about the marks—that cut that seemed to be some kind of pattern? Well, it is. Or... we think it is.”

“You think it is?”

“The trouble is, the connecting piece is that in every case we found was that the marks were obscured after they were made,” Abby said. “while the design is similar every time, you can only see so much of it, which makes it hard to be sure that it's the same in every case.”

Gibbs gave them a look, and Abby elbowed McGee. He opened up the folder and held out the photographs for Gibbs to compare.

“We're pretty sure we're dealing with a serial killer. He's been active all over the country—in a lot of port cities but not just there. So far we've found five victims with the same partial pattern and attempt to obscure it.”

“You got anything to connect that to our victim besides the pattern?” Gibbs asked. “Anything to tie to the navy besides port cities?”

McGee looked at her, and Abby rolled her eyes. “We asked Ducky to look at the autopsies from the other victims, and I'd like to go over their forensics myself. Right now I'm running a program to digitally enhance the photos to predict where the marks would be despite the attempt to obscure them.”

“And?”

“And I finished one before I came up to find you,” she said, showing him the rendering. “It matches all the exposed parts of Lieutenant Valerii's wounds. You can even see where the pattern on her would have continued to fit this one right here.”

Gibbs just gave them both a look. “Find out if the other patterns are a match. And see if any of the others connect in any way to Adama or his friend Agathon. McGee, check with DiNozzo and Bishop. I want to know what they found on Adama's brother.”

“If you're thinking they're connected, I'm probably going to disappoint you,” Tony said as he joined them. “Looks like Malloy is a real homebody. For someone who heads a multimillion dollar international company, his travel habits are.... well, they're non-existent. Boss, this guy doesn't go out of DC. Like, ever.”

“He was still at that bar that night.”

“Yeah, and his home security system was activated at nine-thirty that night. He was back in the house, like he says,” Tony said. “System shows no sign of anyone else going in or out until he left for work the next morning.”

“Any proof that alarm was actually set from inside the house?” Gibbs asked, and Tony frowned. “You know the rules, DiNozzo.”

“Yeah, boss,” Tony agreed. “That's why Bishop is on the phone with the security company now. I just thought I'd see what you got out of the guy who threatened Bishop.”

Abby frowned. “He threatened Bishop?”

Gibbs glared at Tony. “Go find out if the security system was used inside the house. Get proof that both brothers were there. And get me the file on what happened to Malloy when he was in college.”

“On it, boss.”

* * *

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Jake looked at him, and Karl shrugged. It was a fair question. First he'd scared everyone by passing out—fortunately he was just drunk and not trying to kill himself—and then Kara had scared the hell out of him. Really, no one would have blamed Jake for staying back at home.

“I just want to make sure that Lee's not in any trouble because of me,” Jake said, and Karl nodded. He couldn't really disagree with that.

Surprisingly, Kara had nothing to say on the matter. She just kept staring at Jake, almost like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Karl hoped he hadn't been that bad, but then again—he had seen Jake in the hospital a few times before ever saw just how much the twins looked alike. He'd had weeks to come to grips with the fact that Lee had a second brother and that he was a twin before he actually really saw it.

“Maybe I should say something about Lee being able to fight his own battles,” Karl began, and Jake looked at him. “You have said it to Lee.”

“The difference being that no one believes me when I say that,” Jake said, which had Karl smiling. He was right about that, not that Helo thought he was completely incapable. It was just that seeing him today would make anyone doubt that.

“You actually need the glasses or is that just to tell you apart from Lee?” Kara asked, and Karl looked at her, frowning. She shrugged. “There are a lot of worse things I could ask.”

True. They were all fortunate that Kara had picked an almost tame question to begin her interrogation.

“I have... permanent damage to my optic nerves,” Jake said, almost choking on it. He looked at Karl again, the same unspoken question in it. _Are you sure she's really Lee's friend?_

“Jake, you're tensing up again,” Karl told him. “Take another breath, or I'm going to have to turn the car around.”

“I'm not sure I can do this without the medication,” Jake admitted, closing his eyes and trying to breathe through it. “Right now, I'd be going for my pills. I don't... it's... The prescription is wrong. I know that, but maybe going off of them without anything is worse.”

“Okay, first we go make sure your brother hasn't done anything stupid, then we find a doctor who will see you on short notice,” Karl said. They could try urgent care if they had to, but he didn't know that Jake needed it. Not yet. He wasn't in a full-blown panic attack yet, and he might only need time to adjust to being off the meds.

They'd just have to wait, see, and keep an eye on him.

“So...” Kara said, leaning into the front seat. “You're on drugs. Any of them the good ones?”

Jake looked at her. “Are you sure _you_ shouldn't be on them?”

Karl laughed. “Damn. That was good.”

Kara shook her head. “If you were Lee, I'd hit you for that.”

“You are only proving my point,” Jake told her, and Karl grinned. Maybe Lee had been wrong about keeping his brother away from Kara. He was doing just fine. Well, other than that panic attack earlier. That wasn't okay. Still, Kara was taking the twin thing better than expected.

Or she was up to something.

Damn it.

* * *

“Where are we at?” Gibbs asked, coming around the corner. They weren't going to be able to hold Adama forever, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the pilot was connected to all of this somehow. He didn't know how, didn't know if it was the brother, but he was sure of it.

“We have ourselves a serial killer,” DiNozzo said. He clicked the remote, bringing up an image on the screen. “All of these women were killed. All of them were marked with this pattern and then an effort was made to destroy the mark.”

“That's not the only thing they have in common,” McGee said. “Shelly Godfrey and Gina Invierre look so much alike they could be twins. It almost seemed like our killer had a preference, but he also killed Deanna Biers and Trys Baker. They were also blonde, also very similar in appearance, but then our guy found Ellen Tigh.”

“No double on Tigh?” Gibbs asked, frowning. The first two looked alike, then second two, but then there was Tigh and Valerii, who didn't have any lookalikes. “Or Valerii?”

“It's possible that Tigh's double has not been found. Godfrey and Invierre were both abducted before their deaths,” Bishop said, biting her lip. “The time between when each of the women was last seen and when they were found dead decreases with each victim.”

“Almost as though he had perfected his method of killing,” Ducky added. “I would venture to say that he has found a most expedient way of ensuring that his victims die while still giving him what he needs from the kill. The shorter times allow him more freedom so that he may go about his murders without notice even though he seems compelled to commit these crimes.”

“Godfrey died how many years ago?” Gibbs asked, not able to see that on the screen, not without it being enlarged.

“Six,” DiNozzo answered. “Biers and Baker were three years ago, and Tigh was last year.”

“One set a year?” Gibbs asked, and McGee nodded. “Then where the hell is year five, four, or two? You're sure you found all of the victims with this mark?”

“Um...”

DiNozzo looked at McGee with suspicion. “What?”

“Nothing. I just want to double check the search filters real quick. I'm sure we got all of the ones in the database.”

“It is possible that if the bodies were discovered well after their deaths, the decomposition would leave us nothing to make a connection with,” Ducky said. “This killer, while leaving a similar mark on all of his victims, has used multiple methods to end his victims' lives as well as to obscure the pattern he leaves on all of their bodies. There could well be more bodies and we would not know as the connection is based on the mark and preventing it from being recognized. What puzzles me is why. This is a killer who seems to be at war with himself. He is driven to kill, compelled to leave behind this mark, and yet he tries to hide it. If it were simply a matter of trying to prevent discovery, he could take pains to see to it that his victims were not found. Yet Ms. Valerii was left in an alley within hours of her death, as though he wanted her found. Same with Godfrey and Biers. I feel as though I am missing some key factor...”

“We ran the pattern itself to try and pin down its source,” McGee said. “So far, it hasn't appeared in anything. No myths, no ancient languages, no logos... Nothing.”

“Whatever it is has great significance to our killer,” Ducky insisted. “He has carefully carved this image into every person he killed.”

“Then it has to be somewhere. Keep digging.”

* * *

“Well, here we go,” Helo muttered, leaning over to press the elevator button. Jake took a breath, fiddling with his visitor's badge, not sure he was up to this. He'd thought he was until he got in the car, but then he should have known better. He couldn't help his worry over his brother, since Lee seemed to lose his head when it came to people he cared about. He would even defend the father that frustrated him so much—the one he still wouldn't introduce Jake to.

“Can't believe we're actually willing to go see the cops,” Kara muttered from the back of the elevator.

Helo looked back at her. “I told you repeatedly you didn't have to come.”

“No, I had to come,” she insisted. “I have to see this one in the same room with Lee. I'm not going anywhere until I do.”

Jake shook his head. He didn't know how Lee could stand that woman, but then he had found stories about her funny, so maybe it was just the stress of the day. He still didn't understand what to think of his doctor or the medication that might have been making him worse. He still didn't know why he'd thought drinking would help, but then he used to be a bigger drinker before all this—and he knew that his mother—both his mothers—were alcoholics, so he shouldn't be surprised that he thought it was a way to cope.

The elevator stopped, and Jake hurried out of it, glad to be free of the enclosed space. He needed to be able to breathe again. He swallowed, unable to go forward toward the partition. He couldn't face the agents even though he knew that was why he'd come.

“Mr. Malloy?”

He looked over to see the agent he'd spoken to earlier. He tried to force words out of his mouth, but he couldn't make them come.

“I am so sorry about this,” she said, coming closer to him. “I have this bad habit of saying whatever is on my mind, and when I saw the Darvonex, I remembered that case, so I said it, but that wasn't really necessary or what you wanted to hear so I don't know why I—”

“The pharmacist confirmed what you said,” he told her, and she winced. “I just... don't really understand why my doctor had me on that if that is the case. I thought... Well, it doesn't matter. Is my brother still here?”

“He is. We had a few more questions for him, and Gibbs wanted him to stay while we confirmed a few things.”

Jake frowned at her. “You don't honestly think my brother did this, do you? Lee can be... well, he does have a temper, but he usually doesn't let people get to him unless they're threatening someone he cares about. I've never heard him mention this woman before, and I've heard stories about almost every one of Lee's shipmates.”

“Oh? Exactly what did he tell you about me?” Kara asked, and Jake missed the days when he was almost bold enough to give her the finger. Instead, he shuddered.

“Why don't you come over here?” Bishop asked, taking his arm, and for some reason, Jake let her do it, leading him away from Kara. “I'm sure that Tony or McGee would be willing to go get your brother so we can put both your minds at ease. He seemed very worried about you.”

“That's Lee,” Jake said, and she smiled at him, leading him over to a desk. “Here. This is my desk. We'll just need a minute to get your brother.”

“Lieutenant Agathon. Have a few more questions for you,” the older agent said, moving toward Helo, and Jake tensed up again, trying to calm himself down again.

“What's that?” Kara asked, making Jake jump, and he swore under his breath. “That pattern—wait, bring it back. I know that from somewhere.”

Jake's eyes went to the screen against his will, and he had to cover his mouth, trying not gag as he did. He couldn't be seeing that. It couldn't be real. It wasn't. Why would they do this to him? They wouldn't. They couldn't know.

“I think you might not be the only one who recognizes it,” another agent said. “What the hell is it? Because if either of you know—”

“I just said I'd seen it before,” Kara said, shaking her head. “I don't know what it is. Just know I've seen it... I would copy it. I used to draw it when I was a kid.”

“You used to draw that?” Jake asked, backing away from her. He hit the partition, leaving himself nowhere to go. He slid down to the floor, covering his head with his hands and knowing he looked like a moron but unable to stop himself. At least he wasn't screaming this time.

It was all he could do not to tear his shirt and try and rid himself of that same mark, the one etched into his skin.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake has the inevitable panic attack and the connection is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote these scenes in my head so many times they should have been perfect. They're not. The images play out fine when I see them, but in practice... my wordcraft fails miserably.

* * *

_The blade went down into his skin, and he screamed, trying to get away from the knife, but his hands caught. He looked up, choking as he saw the cords binding his hands. He didn't understand. Where was he? What was this?_

_He tried to remember how this had happened, but he couldn't. This wasn't anywhere he knew. The room was bright, strange. Red, but white. He didn't understand. He couldn't make it make sense. Everything hurt._

_Something stabbed into his side, and he howled as the blade turned, twisting inside him. He pulled on the ropes, needing to get free. He had to get out. He was going to die here. Someone was cutting into him, and he was bleeding._

_Red like the walls._

_He shook his head, calling for help. He heard laughter, and someone was by his ear, breathing on him in a way that made him squirm then scream._

_“Yell all you want,” the voice said as the blade moved again. “No one is coming for you.”_

* * *

All hell broke loose with the damned picture, and Tony knew he was due for a Gibbs-slap for leaving it up on the screen, but it wasn't his idea to put Malloy at Bishop's desk. That was all her. Then again, it wasn't like any of them expected him to have that kind of reaction to the picture, either. He wasn't even that credible a witness, and Tony had basically dismissed him as being any part of this—well, other than something to tease Bishop about—but it would seem that he was a whole lot more than that. And the woman just might be as well.

“Someone get his brother,” Agathon said, pushing past the woman who'd recognized the pattern and Bishop to go around behind her desk. “Jake, listen to me. You're not there. You're at NCIS. Remember, we came to stop Lee from doing something stupid?”

Malloy let out a sound that was close to a whimper. Tony shoved McGee toward the other room, unwilling to miss the show himself. This was damned interesting. Just what did that pattern mean to this guy?

“That's it. Just breathe. You have some breathing exercises that you do, don't you?” Agathon asked. “Why don't we try them?”

“Go... away,” Malloy moaned. “Just... leave me alone.”

“Can't really do that when you're cowering behind a desk.”

“Kara, you are not helping,” Agathon snapped, shaking his head before he tried again. “Jake, listen to me. It's okay. This is a federal building, full of agents. There is no way that anyone's getting to you in here.”

“Bishop, you got the records from the college?” Gibbs asked, looking over at Malloy as Agathon tried to get him calm.

She shook her head. “McGee was looking into that, not me. Maybe if we moved the desk out of the way—no, that probably actually helps because it seems like safety. We should move back, though, give him some space.”

“That would be good, actually,” Agathon said. “He really doesn't like crowds. Jake, the agents are going to back off, and then maybe you can come out of there. It's fine. You'll be okay.”

“I realize... I am... panic... stop... talking... to me... like a child,” Malloy said. “This... is... humiliating... enough... without that.”

“You don't have anything to be ashamed of,” Bishop told him. “You have post traumatic stress. This is—”

“Don't say... normal,” Malloy muttered. “This is... not... normal.”

“It's actually probably a side effect of you being on Darvonex,” Bishop said, and Ducky winced. Tony didn't blame him. They'd all seen the downside to that particular drug, and this guy really didn't deserve that. No one did.

Ducky crossed the room to Bishop's desk. “Are we certain it was Darvonex? That seems like such a poor choice with PTSD this severe.”

“Ducky, I don't think you're helping,” Tony told him. Malloy was calmer, and that was something, but it wasn't much, not when Ducky and the talk of the medication might just push him back where he was.

“I suppose not, Anthony, but the question needed to be asked,” Ducky said. “I am merely trying to see if there is anything I can do. If this is indeed brought on or worsened by medication, there may be ways that I can help counter it, but I would have to know more before I attempted to do anything.”

“I think we should just lay off the medication for now,” Agathon said. “Focus on the breathing and just try to stay calm.”

Malloy nodded, shaking as he did. “Please... stop... staring at... me.”

Tony would have, but it was kind of hard not to, since this was the entertainment of the hour. He wasn't the only one watching, and he knew it. Everyone wanted to see how this played out—and everyone wanted to know just what made him go off like that.

Just what was that pattern, anyway?

The woman knew it, too, but it didn't frighten her the way it did Malloy.

“So,” Tony said, tugging on the woman's arm. “Explain this pattern to me. Where exactly did you see it before?”

“I told you—it was when I was a kid,” she said, yanking her arm free. “Who the hell cares, anyway? It's just some stupid design.”

“It's not stupid to him,” Gibbs said, and she grimaced, looking over at Malloy who seemed to have been getting worse again. Coherence was gone, and he was muttering into his knees, hands wrapped around them.

“Can we not do this here?” Agathon asked. “Kara, just go. Go answer whatever the hell they want to know.”

“Just a few questions,” Tony assured her, knowing he'd dig up her entire background if he had to, but it shouldn't take that much. If she'd seen it when she was a kid, then it had to be somewhere where she'd lived, and that would narrow it down some. It might even give them the connection they needed.

Kara looked back at the two men, shaking her head as she did. Tony could tell she wasn't about to cooperate. He looked at Gibbs, but he had a feeling that Gibbs was going to try and talk to Malloy if he ever calmed down. Damn.

“Where's my brother?” Adama demanded, coming around the corner with McGee. “What the hell did you do to him?”

* * *

_“Damn it, what the hell did you do to him?”_

_Jake heard the voice, but he didn't look up, not when it was much easier to keep his eyes on his hands. He didn't need to see anything else, not when everything terrified him. He couldn't remember. He woke up screaming, but he didn't know why. He did, but he didn't. He could see the marks all over his body, scars that wouldn't heal, but they didn't have answers. Only more questions._

_He didn't know how most of them got there. He only knew about a few of them, and he was too afraid to think about the rest. He felt sick, couldn't handle it if his eyes moved from his fingers to his wrist, to the deep line etched in his skin._

_“Jake?”_

_He closed his eyes, unable to stop the shudder. He was about to lose it. He'd be a screaming mess in a second, trying to hide under his bed or cut his own wrist right on the line that was already there. He just wanted this to be over._

_He was supposed to be numb._

_He wasn't numb._

_“Hey.” This time the voice came from in front of him, and he looked into a face that used to be his. He didn't look like that anymore, not with the hair shaved off, the scar from the surgery they'd done to make his brain stop bleeding. “You remember me?”_

_“Kind of... hard to forget... a twin.”_

_Lee managed a small smile. “Good. That's a start.”_

_“Go away.”_

_“No,” Lee said. He shook his head. “I'm not going to accept that. You know it's not how either of us is wired.”_

_“I... Wires... cut... Broken...”_

_“I don't believe that. You do not belong here,” Lee insisted. “You don't need to be committed. Gods, that's like letting them win, and they don't get to win. They took you, they tortured you, and they left you for dead. You survived that. You should have been dead, but you're not. That's not something that should be punished.”_

_Jake shook his head. “I can't. I... I can't function. Can't sleep. Can't... I don't... I jump at every shadow. Every noise. I can't look... at my own wrists. I've lost my voice screaming... and I don't... I don't even know why. I just want... I want it to stop.”_

_“It doesn't stop because you end it. It stops when you take back your life,” Lee insisted. “Come on. You don't belong here.”_

_“Yes, I do.”_

_“No, our frak up of a mother who couldn't cope with life so she spent it drunk belonged in a place like this. You don't,” Lee corrected. “I spent years trying to help her, and she didn't deserve it. You do. You didn't ask for this. No one knows why they did this, but I do know that I can help you get past it. I will.”_

_“Like you're not a mess yourself.”_

_Lee shrugged. “Like Helo always says—easier to clean up someone else's mess than your own. That's probably half the reason I'm friends with Kara. Talk about messes...”_

* * *

“Jake?”

Lee couldn't believe this. He had come to NCIS to get them away from his brother, not to deliver him up to them. He was supposed to be protecting him, and instead, Jake was in the middle of his second breakdown of the day. Damn it. This should not be happening. He had told them to stay away from his brother, and he'd told them all that they needed to know.

Somehow, though, Jake was here, and he was a mess. This wasn't as frightening as when they couldn't get him to answer, but it still pissed him off. He didn't like seeing his brother hurt, not when it was Zak and they were kids, but even now, with Jake, he felt that same need to protect. He didn't know why—Jake was grown when they met, and neither of them could be sure which one was older, even if it was by seconds. Still, Lee knew it didn't matter. Even if Jake had been years older, they probably would have been in some weird messed up protective cycle.

Especially if that Jake had been through the same thing this Jake had.

“Lee?” Jake asked, lifting his head up from his knees. He swallowed, still shaking as he tried to compose himself. “I... I swear... was fine...”

“You probably were until you got here,” Lee muttered, still frustrated. He looked at his friend, and Helo shrugged. “Or you weren't, but you felt you had to come save me, huh?”

“Stupidity... in... the genes,” Jake said, though without any hint of teasing, no attempt to laugh. He shook his head, trembling, and Lee knew he had to get him out of that corner. This was too damned familiar, though he'd take Jake's PTSD over his mother's drinking problem any day. His mother didn't have to be an abusive mess. Jake didn't have a choice, and he'd never hurt anyone, even when he was at his worst.

“Yeah, it its,” Lee agreed. “Come on. We should get you out of here.”

“Gonna have to lock me up.”

“No,” Lee insisted, refusing to accept that, just as he had before. “That's not happening. You're not crazy. You don't have to be committed. Just relax a little.”

Jake shook his head, and Lee decided to hell with it. He pulled his brother into his arms and held him, waiting out the trembling. “Why... are they... doing this... to me?”

Lee turned back to glare at the agents, ready to attack one or maybe all of them. They had done this, and he wanted to make them pay.

“Whoa,” DiNozzo said from behind him. “We did not do anything to him. I swear. He flipped out when he saw the image on the screen.”

Lee's hand balled into a fist. “Of course he did. Why the hell would you do that to him? Where did you even get—you put a picture from his case file up there? What kind of insensitive—oh, gods. That's not from Jake's file, is it?”

McGee grimaced. “That's from Lieutenant Valerii.”

“What?” Helo demanded. “Someone cut that mark into Sharon? What the frak is wrong with them? Who does that?”

“You don't want an answer to that,” DiNozzo said. “Now we have a couple people here who recognize the design—”

“Of course he recognized the frakking thing. It's carved into his side,” Lee snapped, and his brother shuddered again. “Sorry, Jake. I just—”

“They killed her. Lee, they killed her,” Jake said, clawing at his shirt. “They're still out there. They... did this. They'll find me. They—”

“Easy,” Lee said, though how he was going to keep his brother calm when his worst nightmare was coming true, he didn't know. He couldn't do this. “Breathe. You're not alone. Remember?”

Jake shook his head. “Can't. Can't... not again...”

“Wait,” DiNozzo said. “If that design was carved into your brother's side—McSexist, why didn't we know about this before?”

“The filters were set to look only for female victims since serial killers do tend to have a preference in gender,” McGee said, defensive. “I fixed it before I went to get Adama and—Oh, no. That's...”

“Boss, we just found years two, four, and five.”

Gibbs looked back at Jake. “And one, I'd bet.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team divides up the witnesses while Jake attempts to get himself calmed down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was all set to update this, and then things got all weird, I ended up not writing, and then when I did, I finished another story and let myself have what was supposed to be a one-shot as a reward. Then I found this one... very hard to do for some reason. I don't know. I can't explain it. 
> 
> And it was too soon to jump right into Jake being interviewed about the past, so... This happened instead.

* * *

_“And this,” Jake said, waving the bottle in his hand around, “could all be mine someday. The great and vast empire that my father's father built generations ago. Of course, he's not my father, but we did have a very touching moment where he told me that everything the light touched would be mine.”_

_“You are very drunk,” Lee muttered. “Who the hell quotes the Lion King, anyway?”_

_“You recognized it,” Jake pointed out. “That makes you just as bad.”_

_Lee nodded. They were both equally pathetic. He found he had more in common with his long lost twin than he would have thought. Both of them were workaholics, perfectionists. Jake hadn't finished his law degree yet, but he had the same drive to him that Lee had back at the academy, though he knew part of that was just a need to prove that he belonged there. He hadn't gotten anything based on his father's name or rank, and he wasn't going to. He had his own career in the navy—though he wasn't sure he wanted it._

_“You think you'll do it? Take all of this on?”_

_Jake shook his head. “I hate business. It's all about money, and money... Money never does anyone any good. It just creates problems.”_

_“The law causes problems, too.”_

_“Have you actually read Joseph's book?” Jake asked, setting down the bottle on the desk. “He has a wonderful understanding of what law really is. It's not just rules or regulations. It's civilization itself.”_

_Lee laughed. “So... when you get drunk you philosophize?”_

_“You do realize as a military officer you took an oath to defend this country and its laws, right? If you don't think laws make a society, we could have a very interesting discussion of Lord of the Flies.”_

_“Not drunk enough for that,” Lee said. “Why did we come here, anyway?”_

_Jake looked around the office again. “Don't you feel it? It's like the world's ending. Everything we used to know and accept of our lives... that's all gone now. I'm not their son. This isn't where I belong. This life, this name... And you. Doesn't it... kill any love you might have had left for your mother that she did this? What of your father? Can you forgive him for letting it happen?”_

_Lee shook his head. He already knew the answer to that. He didn't forgive either of his parents, and he never would. “Don't think you'd want to try and belong where I've been.”_

_“I didn't say I was going to,” Jake said. “No. I'm getting my degree, becoming a lawyer, and then I'm not going to do a damned thing with them again.”_

_“You think you'll be able to do that? Just say screw you to them and walk away for good?”_

_Jake looked at him. “Why, because you couldn't? We're twins. We're not the same. And yes. I think I could. I don't want any of this, and they won't force me into it. That is not who I am.”_

* * *

“Year one?” Kara asked, confused as hell by all of this. She had only set out to confront Lee about the lies—and she wasn't even sure they were his and not NCIS trying to pull something, get him to admit to something he hadn't done or even something she'd done—and now she was here in the middle of a mess that just got weirder. She had needed to see for herself that Lee was a twin, and she actually hadn't believed it until she saw him with his brother. 

Oh, they were twins all right. Impossible, but they were.

“He thinks that Jake was this killer's first victim,” Lee answered, and his twin went off again, shaking and making some kind of horrible noise like a wounded animal. “Easy. It's not your fault, even if you were. You didn't do this to anyone.”

“I never... if I saw... I couldn't... Didn't stop... them...”

“Jake, they put you in a frakking coma no one expected you to wake up from,” Lee said. “Don't you dare blame yourself for this. You know you're lucky you're alive. This—you didn't do anything wrong by surviving. It's not your fault.”

Kara winced. Damn, that would be hard to hear, and no one had actually said how many victims there actually was. Five? That was messed up.

A hand touched her arm, and Kara almost decked the agent that put it there. “We need to talk about that mark and where you may have seen it before.”

Kara shook her head. “I don't even—”

“It _is_ important,” the other agent said. McGee, right? The skinnier one was McGee. “The way we know these deaths are related is that mark, and we haven't found any sign of it before, but if you recognize it, then we have to know what you know.”

“Exactly.” The agent in the suit smiled at her. “So go with McGee here, have a nice little chat about where that came from—”

“Both of you go,” the older agent ordered, and they grimaced. Kara figured that she could have some fun with this, though she wasn't really in the mood to dig up that past. She didn't understand how any of that mattered.

“Come with us, Lieutenant,” McGee said, gesturing for her to go forward. She gave Lee and his brother another look.

“Kara, please,” Lee said. “If you know anything—even something you think is stupid and couldn't matter—tell them. Please. Jake shouldn't have to live like this, and if they are killing people, if they killed Sharon—”

“Right,” Kara said, voice tight. She didn't want to think about that. “Lead the way, then.”

* * *

_“You don't actually want to do that.”_

_“Not... staying... here,” Jake said, trying to keep himself calm. He felt half-numb, so he shouldn't be about to panic and start screaming, but he was. He had to get out of here. He was helpless. Trapped. They would find him here. They'd kill him._

_He wouldn't be able to stop them. Again._

_“Jake, you can't leave the bed.”_

_Somehow he knew that his twin would have been out of here long before he was. “Like you would stay.”_

_“Well, probably not, but then... I've never gotten myself put in there when all the bones in my foot were broken, so... it's not the same,” Lee told him, and Jake stopped, staring at him. “Yeah. You probably had no idea since you've been on painkillers and you couldn't see your feet since they've been under a blanket, but they did a number on your feet.”_

_Jake shuddered. “No. I would feel... I don't feel the cast... I don't—”_

_“Jake, calm down,” Lee said, standing up to coming over to the bed. “You shouldn't even be awake your painkillers are that high. They were talking about putting you back into a coma to help you heal. They're—your panic attacks... they're afraid you'll hurt yourself during one and undo all the healing you've already done.”_

_Jake shook his head. “I don't... I can't...”_

_“You're not alone,” Lee insisted. “I'm here. You're safe. Just get some rest. Let yourself heal.”_

* * *

“You know you can ask now,” Karl said as soon as Kara was out of the room. Lee looked up with suspicion, but Karl ignored him to focus on his brother, and Jake managed to lift his head long enough to look at him. “Ask him how he's friends with her.”

Jake shook his head. “Children.”

Karl rolled his eyes. “Like you weren't thinking it ever since she barged in earlier. Come on. You know it doesn't make sense. Unless it does, which says a lot for how screwed up your brother is and how—”

“Helo, shut up,” Lee snapped. “I don't care if you think you're helping. You're not.”

“Annoying one brother to comfort another is a strange sort of strategy, I admit,” the doctor said, and Helo grimaced. It was more effective than they realized. They couldn't see it here, but he'd seen it before, many times.

“I prefer food,” the female agent said. “Though... you are actually blocking my stash, so that doesn't help anyone.”

Jake moved, pushing Lee out of the way of her desk as he did. Neither of them got up, which still wasn't a good sign. The older agent gave her a look, and she winced. That hadn't been her intention, but it was hard to know the right tactic to take when it came to one of Jake's panic attacks. Lee fielded them pretty well, but Karl wasn't that good. He tried, but it didn't always work.

“You're welcome to anything that's in there,” she said. “Bottom drawer there on the left. Lots of unhealthy snacks suitable for all sorts of occasions.”

Karl shook his head, not thinking her idea was any better, but Lee reached over and pushed the drawer open, taking out a couple bags. He threw one to her and opened the other, putting it in front of Jake's face.

“Go away.”

“You haven't eaten all day,” Lee reminded him. “Put something in your stomach to help counter the medication and the alcohol. You don't want to know how many times that made a difference for Mom.”

Jake took the cookie, shaking his head. “This... is not... food.”

“It's a macaroon,” the woman said. “And while it's a cookie, one could argue that it has some nutritional value because it has nuts, and many nuts are used in diets for protein and fiber—”

“Bishop.”

“Sorry, Gibbs,” she said. “I was just...”

Karl figured that her intentions were obvious and the other agent shouldn't have butted in because it actually seemed to be helping. Jake took a bite of the cookie, leaning his head against her desk and closing his eyes.

“Still have questions for you,” Gibbs said, and Karl frowned when he realized that the agent was talking to him.

“Wait, what? You don't actually think we had anything to do with this,” Karl protested. He didn't see how that man could think it was possible. Jake was Lee's brother, Lee was his best friend, and Helo would never have hurt either of them.

“I have questions,” the agent repeated, and Karl shook his head, still not believing this.

“Helo,” Lee said. “I... Let's just end this, okay? Whatever they have to know...”

“Yeah,” Karl muttered. He wasn't happy about it, but Lee had a point—if the person who killed Sharon was the same as the one who'd abducted and tortured Jake, then they had to be stopped. If Karl knew anything that could help, he'd tell them. He didn't think he did, but the least he could do was answer a few questions.

He followed the agent out of the room.

* * *

_“You sure about this? I thought you said you didn't want your family's money.”_

_Jake looked up at the townhouse. “This... neighborhood is... It's the best in the city. It's... It's safe. They pay for safety here.”_

_“That's why you're doing this? Because you think this place will be safe?"_

_Jake curled up in the passenger seat, trying not to shudder. He hated that question. It made him sound like he couldn't be safe anywhere. He couldn't—he had to—if he couldn't feel safe... “I could go back to the psych ward.”_

_“No,” Lee said. “Look, I still don't think you should have to be locked up. You don't need that to feel safe. I didn't mean that—I just... I hate to see you giving up on everything you wanted because of what they did to you. You shouldn't have to go crawling back to your family to feel safe.”_

_Jake shook his head. “I don't feel safe anywhere. This... I... I can't do this. Go back. Drive back to the hospital. I'll stay there. I don't—”_

_“No. We'll go inside, and we'll make sure it's safe,” Lee said. “I won't let you go back to that. Ever. You are not crazy, and you don't have to be there.”_

* * *

Ellie frowned, not sure why Gibbs had left with Agathon when he had to want to talk to their living witness, quite possibly the first victim. Malloy could be the key to everything, and yet Gibbs had walked away from him, leaving him and his brother behind. She wouldn't have thought that Gibbs would be that sensitive, but then again, it wasn't likely they would get much from Malloy when he was in the middle of a panic attack this bad.

It would probably be better if Ducky had a chance to examine him, but Ellie wasn't sure that Adama would allow that. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to distract him, but she didn't think that she could. She was bad with people and while she had helped, a little, in convincing Malloy to eat the cookie, getting Adama away from his very traumatized brother—no, she didn't have that kind of skill.

Ducky cleared his throat. “I imagine that you may not think very much of my profession at the moment, but I would like to help if I may.”

“We don't need a doctor,” Adama said, which made his brother snort.

“I don't... think anyone here... would believe that.”

Ellie shook her head. “You're not sick or injured, and you're not crazy, either. You just need some time and maybe more cookies.”

Adama looked at her. “That's your solution?”

She shrugged. “I stress eat.”

Malloy frowned at her. “You... stress eat? You... don't look... like it.”

“I have a good metabolism. And I exercise,” she said, feeling a little self-conscious now. “I'm sorry. I didn't really mean to get in the middle of anything. It's not like I thought that my cookie suggestion would actually make a difference.”

“I don't know,” Malloy said. “So far... I like your suggestion... better than most... of the others... including mine.”

She smiled at him. He seemed sweet, and she felt horrible knowing he was going through all of this. He didn't deserve that. She knew that no one did, but every interaction she'd had with him—she only saw a bit of what he was like under the PTSD, but he seemed like a nice man. She didn't know how she'd managed to bump into him and then have him so deeply connected to their case—Gibbs said there was no such thing as a coincidence, but this? What exactly was this?

“Better than the hospital,” Adama said, and his brother nodded.

Ellie held out her bag of cookies, offering one to him. He reached past his brother and took it, and his brother frowned as he ate it. She thought that was a victory, though, and she was proud she'd gotten it.

“We could move you into the conference room,” Ellie offered, getting a frown from both of them. “Well... it is more private, and if you were to allow Ducky to look at you, I think you'd prefer there over his usual office.”

Adama looked at Ducky. “You... you're the medical examiner, aren't you?”

“I am,” Ducky agreed, “though that does not mean that I am not a qualified doctor.”

“He's a very good doctor,” Ellie assured them. “Ducky has lots of experience, not just as a medical examiner but also as a surgeon and a profiler—”

“It's not that I doubt your qualifications,” Adama said. “I'm just not sure that there's anything you can do here. If we have to get Jake a new prescription, we can't do that here, and he probably needs to be off of the one for longer anyway.”

“That is true, however there is no reason to think we can't be of any assistance.”

“You want to get me calm,” Malloy said. “And keep me that way.”

Ducky shook his head. “You make it sound almost as though I intend to drug you, which I assure you is not the case, even if that is the tactic other doctors have used.”

“It's not...” Malloy lowered his head. “They want me to... to talk about it. Again. I'm not sure... I can. I... I don't... I don't actually know anything that will help.”

Ellie knelt down next to him. “You may know more than you think.”

He shook his head. “I've been over and over it. I... I talked to doctors... to police... and lawyers...”

“Not to NCIS.”

“It won't change what I remember,” he said, his eyes meeting hers for a second. “I... It's nothing. I don't... I can't... I don't remember anything. I can't help. We should go.”

“Wait, please,” Ellie said, not wanting to lose them, not when that could mean the case and when he was still obviously hurting. “Just... let us try and help. Please.”

* * *

_“You keep calling for help.”_

_Jake felt the knife against his skin, pressing just enough to tell him where it was, not enough to make him bleed. That could change in an instant. It had before. He knew that, even though he... he didn't remember it. He couldn't... He didn't... He was confused. He hurt. That he could tell, but he didn't know where he was. How he got here._

_The knife stabbed into him, and he screamed._

_“Do it again. Call for help.”_

_He did, though he didn't know why. They both knew that no one was coming._


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few interviews happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I had a bit of trouble getting this part together. It was that whole roadblock of Jake's panic attack again in part and in part me trying to keep myself focused because I've been wanting to play in other AUs. I'm terrible.
> 
> Oh, I forgot... Lee and Helo's friendship... well, it is in part like that in "Everything I Needed to Know about Being Your Friend I Learned from Your Soulmate."

* * *

_“Your parents... they're good people, right?”_

_Jake didn't look over at him, and Lee's stomach twisted. He didn't want to hear that. Sure, his mother was a drunk who barely ever held herself together, and his father was a delusional narcissist obsessed with his ship and his career instead of his family, but he didn't want to hear that somehow the one that she'd given away had gotten a worse deal. That shouldn't even be possible._

_“I thought we went over this already,” Jake said, and Lee frowned. “They have money. They adopted to have someone to pass the company to. Nothing else matters to them.”_

_“I guess I just...” Lee shook his head. “I didn't want her giving you away to mean that you had to suffer. I... It was no picnic being home, trust me, but that... I don't know. It wouldn't be right. Not that any of this is right.”_

_Jake shrugged. “I think if we get too caught up in what could have happened, we'll just torment ourselves, and I don't know about you, but I think too much anyway. Or so I'm told.”_

_Lee nodded. Helo said that a lot about him. Come to think of it, Helo would probably like Jake. If he could get past all the stuff Lee did, then why not, right? Why wouldn't Helo be friends with Lee's twin, too?_

_Kara—oh, gods. Lee refused to think about what Kara would do. She'd never quit with some jokes. That much Lee could be sure of here and now._

_“You're right. I just wonder sometimes... how much of a difference it would have made if we'd found each other before now or if we'd grown up together.”_

_Jake shrugged. “I doubt we'll ever know, but that doesn't matter much, does it?”_

_“Maybe not.”_

* * *

“Look, I'm not really sure what I can tell you,” Karl began, frowning. “I didn't see Sharon. I don't know who would have hurt her. I know if you think it was Lee or his brother you're barking up the wrong tree. They're not that kind of person. Either of them. Lee's got honor so deep in his blood it's like a cancer, and Jake... well, you've seen him. He's so badly damaged that even if he was the type—and he isn't—he couldn't.”

“You known both of them a long time?”

Karl shrugged. “Lee and I met back when his father was stationed at the base nearby where I grew up. Not long before his parents split, actually. He and I were almost friends back then, lost track of each other after the divorce, and then we ended up friends when I became his RIO.”

“Almost friends?” the agent asked, sitting down. “How does that work?”

Karl grimaced. That was a mistake to say, but then again, it was more accurate than telling everyone they'd been great friends as kids. They weren't. “It means... we all sort of had this thing where we didn't get close to the kids on the base because they were always leaving. Lee and I knew each other in school. We worked a couple projects together, and that meant I spent a bit of time at his house, but if you ask Lee, we weren't friends.”

“Sounds complicated.”

Karl shrugged. “It's just how it was. We weren't close back then. We might have been, if his family stuck around, but after his parents split, his mom moved them away, and I didn't see him again until we were both at Annapolis.”

“And you never met Malloy before?”

Karl shook his head. “No, I met Jake back when he was still hospitalized after the attack. I helped Lee out when he took time off to help Jake rehabilitate, but I'm not that close to Jake. Not like with Lee. He's a good guy. It's just... hard to get close to someone that traumatized, you know?”

The agent nodded. “But back when you knew each other as kids, there was no mention of another brother?”

Karl shook his head. “No. It's... not... I kind of knew his mom was a drunk. I even may have figured out later that she was an abusive drunk—I saw some things I didn't really understand when we were kids. Jake's lucky she just gave him away. I'm pretty sure she would have drowned him or something if she hadn't. She was not a good mother.”

“She had another son.”

“Yeah, well, there were three years between Lee and Zak, and from what I understand, the commander felt guilty about missing Lee's birth, so he made more of an effort for a while,” Karl answered. “Either way, she didn't give up the second baby even if she was no more capable of handling it that time around. She kept Zak. And Lee kept his brother from seeing how bad it was.”

“That why he kept the existence of his twin a secret from his other brother?”

“No,” Karl said. He sighed. “Look, you saw Jake earlier. He's not usually that bad, but then it seems like his doctor had him on the wrong prescription, which... He does have anxiety. He has never gotten over that attack. Probably because he can't remember all of it and because those guys got away with it. So he's a mess, and every new person in his life... well, they could have been there, and that sets him off. He does what he can to stop it, but he can't do that for all of it. Zak... Lee doesn't think he could handle it, and even if he did—he'd probably tell two people Lee really doesn't want knowing.”

“His parents.”

Karl nodded. “Carolanne might not be much of a threat now, since she destroyed her liver and is pretty damned sick, but the commander and Lee butt heads so often—it's like they don't know how to get along.”

“You've met him?”

“Yeah. I met him when we were on leave once. I actually liked him, but... then he's not my father. He's also got the worst case of denial I've ever seen. Like... he doesn't seem to understand even now that his ex has a drinking problem. I don't blame Lee for never introducing Jake to him.”

The agent leaned back in his chair. “And when this attack on Jake happened?”

“I only knew about it and Jake after it happened,” Karl said. “Lee and I were supposed to go on a trip during our leave, but Lee didn't show. I found him at the hospital, learned about his brother, and I stayed with him those first few days.”

“Then you know what the investigation was like.”

Karl snorted. “What investigation? They said they had no evidence, they needed Jake to tell them who to look for and Jake... he doesn't remember.”

The agent frowned. “Nothing?”

“A couple pieces. Never enough for them to do anything with. The doctors said he probably would never get anything back. He's lucky he didn't get permanent brain damage—well, actually, he did. His optic nerves were damaged. That's why he's got glasses and Lee doesn't.”

“They never looked beyond what Malloy could tell them?”

Karl shook his head. “No. Not as far as I know.”

* * *

_“What are you doing?” Lee asked, coming up to his brother in the darkened townhouse. He wasn't sure what had woken him, but he didn't like the looks of this. Jake didn't move around in the dark, not these days, and that was never a good sign. “Jake?”_

_His brother didn't answer, so Lee crossed over to him, sitting down next to him on the floor. The tile was cold, and Lee couldn't see how he stood it, but then again, Jake hadn't been thinking clearly even before he had himself committed. This wasn't any different._

_“Come on. What are you doing down here in the dark?”_

_“I... I tried to remember,” Jake answered. “I thought... it was dark when they came up to me... maybe in the dark... Maybe I'd see something... maybe it would... I don't know. I can't stand this. I hate... I don't know... It was there. I woke up screaming and in my dream I must have known something but I don't remember any of it now.”_

_Lee sighed. He didn't know what it said about him that he hadn't heard his brother screaming. “You don't know that the dream had anything to do with it.”_

_“Yeah, because I'm really going to have other nightmares,” Jake muttered, pulling at his hair. “I can't do this. You were wrong, Lee. I have to go back. I can't... Just put me back in the hospital. At least there... I can't hurt anyone.”_

_“You haven't hurt anyone,” Lee said, and then he winced, hoping he was wrong. “Tell me you didn't cut yourself. Please.”_

_“Take this away,” Jake said, giving him the pill bottle. “I don't... I don't trust myself.”_

* * *

“So... let's talk about this mark,” Tony began, and the lieutenant leaned back in her chair, grinning at him. Tim winced. This was not going to go well, not at all. He could already tell just by the way this woman sat that she was trouble.

In a way, she reminded him some of Ziva.

“Why don't we talk about something more interesting,” she said, smiling. “You two have to know something fun. I mean... you're feds, right? What's the weirdest case you've ever had? Or is it this one? Because the whole twin thing, that has to count for something, doesn't it?”

“Actually, this is not our first case with twins,” Tony told her. “In fact, we caught a pair of twin serial killers once. Thing was, the one just wanted her husband's money, but she tried to make it look like a serial killing and she got her sister involved... Bad idea. We caught them because they had identical DNA.”

“Nice.”

“Tony,” Tim said, but of course the other agent didn't listen to him. He never did.

“Just building a little bit of rapport, McGrumpy,” Tony said. He smiled at Thrace. “Of course, this time around we've got a real serial killer, and your friends are involved, so maybe you should just tell us about this mark.”

“I told you—it doesn't mean anything.”

Tim shook his head. “It was carved into every victim this guy killed. Men and women. Your shipmate is dead. This has to mean something.”

“In fact, the more you insist it doesn't mean anything, the more I think it means something to you, the kind of something that makes me wonder if you are connected to this,” Tony said, getting up from the table and walking around behind her. “After all, it looks a lot like Jake Malloy was the first victim, and you know his brother, don't you? That makes you connected to at least two of our victims. So we add that to you not talking about this mark, and it doesn't look good.”

“You forgot the amount of deaths that happened in port cities. Lieutenant Thrace here has opportunity,” Tim added, and she looked at him with a frown.

“Really, who's to say you weren't a part of all of these deaths?”

Thrace snorted. “I didn't kill anyone. I didn't even know Lee had a twin until your boss told me about him.”

“Then you're either a lousy friend or bad liar,” Tony told her. “You really think we'd believe you had no idea that he had a twin? How long have you known him anyway?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Long enough to know that Lee's a damned good liar when he wants to be. I didn't know he had a twin because Lee didn't want me to know. And somehow he convinced Helo to go along with that. That makes them both world class jerks, but it doesn't mean that I'm lying. They did, to me, and I apparently let them, but that doesn't make me a killer.”

“Then just tell us about the mark. There's no reason to make this difficult.”

She shrugged. “I told you. It was something I drew as a kid.”

“Something you created?”

“No. I saw it.”

“Where?”

“I don't frakking remember. It was just this thing... I was a dumb kid, I thought it was interesting. That's all it is,” she insisted. “I don't know any more than that.”

“Look, it has significance to our killer,” Tony insisted. “That means that he might have saw it where you did. Even that would give us a lot more to go on. So tell us where you saw it.”

“I don't know. Some damned base my mom dragged me to as a kid,” Thrace said. “I don't remember which one. We moved a lot, and she was never a candidate for mother of the year. I did my best to forget all of that.”

Tim sighed. “I guess we'll start looking through your mother's service record, then.”

“Have fun with that.”

* * *

_“I'm sorry you're stuck babysitting me.”_

_Helo looked over at him, and Jake shrugged. He didn't know why anyone would think that it was any kind of surprise. He knew what this was. Lee was afraid to leave him alone, so he'd asked his friend to watch over him. He was a pathetic mess, and he didn't know how to stop it. He had thought that maybe he'd get better, but he wasn't. The drugs weren't helping, the nightmares were still bad, and he couldn't function._

_“That's funny. I know I didn't sign up for that,” Helo told him. “Lee's only going to get us drinks. If you're that uncomfortable with talking to me, I can go. Or... I can tell you all the embarrassing stories Lee doesn't want you to hear.”_

_Jake frowned. “Like what?”_

_“Well, to start with... did he ever mention Kara Thrace before?”_

_“No.”_

_“Oh, this is going to be good.”_

* * *

Gibbs left Agathon, musing over a few things as he went to check on the one person he actually did want to talk to. He'd tried to give Malloy enough time to calm down and he'd taken the opportunity to learn a bit more that he didn't think Adama would have shared. His protective instincts ran deep, and he wouldn't have said anything about his own abusive household. That left Gibbs with more questions, and he figured even if Malloy wasn't up to them, Adama would have a few of the ones he wanted.

DiNozzo and McGee had Thrace in interrogation, and he'd let them keep her there. He didn't doubt that she knew a hell of a lot more than she was saying. She might not think she did, but he was sure of it.

He went back to the others, finding them where he'd left them, though at least this time Malloy was on his feet. That was something of an improvement, though the fact that he seemed about to leave was not.

“You have that file yet, Bishop?”

She winced. “I haven't actually looked for it. I was trying to convince the twins to stay.”

“You were leaving?” Gibbs asked, and Adama met his look with a glare.

“I think Jake has been through enough,” Adama said. “I'm taking him back to his house, and you can call and make an appointment if you want to talk to us.”

“Lee,” Malloy began, and the lieutenant commander looked at him. “I don't know that it's—I can't tell them... anything anyway. I don't... remember it. I know that no one believes that, but it's—”

“Wait, the investigators in the other case actually told you that they didn't believe you?” Bishop asked, though Gibbs might have done it himself. “How could they say that?”

Adama shook his head, pushing his brother toward the door. “It doesn't matter. Jake wasn't covering for anyone, he didn't know them, and he doesn't have to do this now. You have upset him enough today.”

“If they're right... about my medication, then we actually... owe them,” Malloy said, wrapping his arms around himself. “I just... I don't... I can't do this again.”

“This could be the last time,” Gibbs said. “We have other evidence. We have other victims. We just need to know what you know.”

“It's nothing. I told you... I don't remember.”

Gibbs shook his head. “You have pieces. I need to know what those pieces are. Give me that. We might not have to bother you again. Ever.”

“I don't...” Malloy swallowed. “I just want this to be over. Please... just leave me alone.”

“I will,” Gibbs promised him. “As long as you tell me what you know. Everything you remember. Just once.”

“He doesn't have to do this,” Adama insisted. “You can get the file and his statements from before. It hasn't changed. He doesn't know anything more now than he did then, and he shouldn't have to relive this nightmare just because you refuse to read.”

“I can read. That doesn't mean that paper is ever going to tell me enough,” Gibbs said. “It's the little things. Details I ask about that you didn't mention and they didn't notice. That's why we need to have that talk.”

Malloy shook his head. “I... No. I don't... I... I am... I'm going to break down again. I can... It's already... starting... I can't...”

“Breathe,” Adama told his brother. “Come on. Let's go get you some air.”

“It's going to be dark out there,” Malloy whispered. “I don't know... I... I'm going to...”

Gibbs' phone rang, and he shook his head as he moved away to take the call. He didn't like this. He couldn't let his main witness walk out without talking to them, but he also couldn't get anything out of the man if he was about to have another panic attack. “Gibbs.”

“I found another one,” Abby said. “Actually, I found another _two._ Remember how there was only Ellen Tigh? I did a search for missing persons that resembled our known victims, and I found two. One that looks exactly like Ellen Tigh and another that looks like Sharon Valerii.”

“Damn it,” Gibbs said. This didn't get any easier or any better. “You have files for me?”

“I do, and I've started reviewing the forensics on all of the cases. I would rather test everything myself,” Abby told him. “I know that they probably didn't do anything wrong, but I still trust me more than I trust anyone else.”

Gibbs didn't argue with that. “We'll see what we can get for you.”

“Good. And Gibbs?”

“Yeah, Abs?”

“We are going to stop this guy, right?”

“We are,” Gibbs said. He hung up and looked at Ducky. “Where the hell did they go?”

“Legally, Jethro, we couldn't hold them,” Ducky reminded him. “I think that he does need some time at the very least. None of us missed that panic attack, and from what I heard, it was not his first of the day.”

“No, it started when I spooked him at the office, then his brother said he had one that made him seem suicidal, and there was another one here, possibly more that we're not aware of,” Bishop said. “I don't think we can push right now. I believe he wants to help us and he will, but he is not ready to right now. We can look through the other evidence, go over all the other cases, and we can get back to him.”

Gibbs grunted, shaking his head as he started for the elevator.

* * *

_“What are we doing here?”_

_“Trying to get your mind off of everything that makes you panic.”_

_Jake snorted, rolling his eyes. “Lee, how did you ever graduate from Annapolis with that kind of stupidity? Everything makes me panic. Right now, you're about to make me panic.”_

 _Lee shook his head. His brother was exaggerating. “We're taking small steps. Just a few little things to test the waters. Nothing major, nothing life-threatening. We're eating outdoors today. It's a simple thing.”_

_“And when I start screaming and frighten all the kids playing over there, then what?”_

_“We try something else,” Lee said. “Come on, Jake. It's been two months since you left the hospital. You're doing better. You're actually spending full days out of bed. This is progress.”_

_“I hate you. I hate myself. I sound pathetic.”_

_“It's a process,” Lee reminded him. “It's going to take time.”_

* * *

“I don't know where Helo parked, but I know I'm not that far from the door,” Lee said, and Jake gave him a look, not really sure that made any kind of difference. He was on his fifth panic attack of the day, and he felt like he'd just left the hospital. He was a mess.

The dark was creeping in on him, and he was not going to make it to the car. Again.

“Come on,” Lee said, leading him along by the elbow. “The car is over this way. We're going to walk a little bit and then we're done.”

“If you start talking to me like a little kid—”

“Hey, I know better than that,” Lee said, grimacing. “Though I admit, it worked a lot better with Mom than it ever has with you.”

“I'm not an idiot.”

Lee snorted. “I shouldn't find that funny.”

“Like either of us has any respect for our mother,” Jake said, not sure if he was going to start laughing or if he was struggling to breathe for other reasons. “I hate this. I wish it wasn't dark. I think if we'd left earlier, I'd be okay.”

“I'm sorry. I was trying to keep all of this from coming back on you. Sharon was my shipmate. This shouldn't have had anything to do with you.”

“If those men killed her—”

“Jake, think about that after we get in the car. We are not turning our back on Sharon or anyone else, but I'm not about to lose you because someone thinks they have to push to get your memories back. That never worked before. It's not like you're trying to hide them—you have legitimate medical reasons why you don't remember anything from that weekend. You shouldn't be punished for that.”

Jake nodded. He'd tried, more than once, to get those memories back, but they never came. He knew he was never going to know what actually happened to him, but then again, he didn't want to, not really.

“Adama,” someone called out, and Lee turned to face them. Jake backed away, not sure who that was, but he didn't want to be around them. He'd been overwhelmed by enough people already today. He would just find the car. That was a good plan. “You know anything about why they called us in? What the hell does NCIS want? I told them on the phone I didn't think I could help, but they insisted.”

“Sir, I'm not sure—”

“Lee,” Jake said, telling himself he was just panicking again because of what happened earlier. The dark was doing things to him. He wasn't actually hearing what he thought he was. He was sick, about to puke, and he wanted to run, but he couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. “That... the... sound...”

“I'm sorry, sir, I have to go,” Lee said, coming back to Jake's side. He took his arm and started walking him toward the car. “Come on. A few more steps—”

“His voice,” Jake said, yanking on his brother's shirt. “It... I... I know it.”

“What?” Lee asked. “No, don't stop walking. You can't panic now. We're not far from the car.”

“It... Who was... I think... it can't actually be one of them... It...”

“I told him letting you live was a mistake.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gibbs stumbles onto something in the parking lot and the course of the investigation changes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, this particular "twist" which isn't a twist was always part of the plan. It just took too long to get there.

* * *

_“When are you leaving?”_

_“I ship out again in two days,” Lee answered, not wanting that to be true. He didn't want to go, not when he'd barely started to know his brother. His twin. This should be stranger than it was, but he wasn't the one who'd gone from a decent lie to a more horrible truth. That was Jake's burden, not his. All and all, Jake seemed to be taking it well._

_Then again, he hadn't met his biological mother or his father. That might change everything._

_Lee figured that Jake would get along fine with Zak, though Zak might resent not knowing about him. Still, it was only a rumor before, one of those hurtful things she'd said when drunk, and Lee hadn't shared those with anyone. They never wanted to hear them._

_Jake hadn't, but he'd actually listened. Then again, that one was about him._

_“It's weird, thinking of you going off to the military. I... I don't like weapons. Couldn't even bring myself to shoot those discs.”_

_“They do call them clay pigeons.”_

_“So not the point,” Jake said. He frowned. “I thought you hated our father. Why are you following in his footsteps?”_

_“I hate Dad,” Lee agreed. “I don't hate flying.”_

* * *

Gibbs took out his phone as the elevator doors closed behind him. He knew he'd just spoken to her, but this was different. He needed an answer fast, and he wasn't going to interrupt McGee, not if Thrace could give them the reason for this symbol that was on all of the bodies. That was almost as important as stopping Malloy from leaving.

“Abs, you got a license for our twins?” Gibbs asked, sure the records had already been pulled to check their cars against any seen on surveillance by the bar where Valerii was found. “Either of their vehicles?”

“I just need a—yes, I do. Looks like Malloy drives a Mercedes-Benz convertible. White, with DC plates. And Adama... he has a Jeep Cherokee. Forest green. Seems somehow fitting, even if he's not actually a marine,” Abby said. “I've sent the plate numbers by text. Let's see here—according to gate records, neither vehicle checked out so they're still in the lot.”

Gibbs thanked her, hanging up. He stepped out of the elevator and headed out of the building. He knew that there would be other chances to talk to Malloy and his twin, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it should be done now. This was fresh, new. So far no one outside his team and his witnesses knew that they'd made the connection, that they knew this was the work of a serial, and he wanted to continue to keep a lid on that.

Still, it wasn't likely the killer was unaware that Malloy was alive. If Agathon was right about the lack of physical evidence, then it was just the fact that Malloy had never remembered—or been able to talk about what happened—that kept him alive.

Now, though, that might not be protection enough.

Gibbs heard tires squealing out of the parking lot, and he shook his head. That wasn't going to help anyone in a hurry, but somehow they always seemed to think it would make some kind of difference. He continued across the lot, looking for the lights. He didn't figure that anyone who drove with Malloy on a regular basis would have parked far from the building or the lights.

He looked around the lot. He was about four cars over from a green Cherokee, and he figured that was his first stop. He could go inside, just put someone on the two men to watch them, but he still would feel a hell of a lot better if he had a chance to talk to Malloy before he let them go.

He rounded the sedan next to the Jeep to find one of them on the ground. He ran forward, checking for a pulse as he dug his phone back out. “Duck, need you in the parking lot. Tell Bishop to get it closed down, have McGee and Abby pull the surveillance footage from the lot. Now.”

He hung up again, looking over Malloy. The wound on his head was bleeding badly enough to where whoever hit him probably thought he was dead, but if this had started out as some kind of conflict between the two brothers, if Malloy had panicked and somehow caused this when his brother tried to calm him, where the hell was Adama? 

Nothing Gibbs had seen of the man said he'd leave with his brother in this state, and he hadn't been on Gibbs' path from the door to this car. This felt wrong. Adama wasn't here.

The killer had the other twin now.

Damn it.

* * *

_“I wasn't lying.”_

_The voice was quiet, low, and if Lee hadn't been expecting it, he wouldn't have heard it. Damn it, this was all messed up, and he wanted to hit something. Someone. “I know you weren't.”_

_“They think I'm lying,” Jake said, sounding completely miserable, and while Lee could understand that for someone in his position, injured as he was, half-dead and confused, it wasn't the wounds doing this to him. It was the damned police. “Why would I lie?”_

_Lee shook his head. He didn't know. Nothing he knew of his brother said he'd lie about this. “I don't think you're lying.”_

_“I don't remember,” Jake insisted. “I... He hit me with the book, and there's nothing. It's all gone. I don't... why won't they believe me?”_

_“They just want to find the people who did this, and they need more from your memories.”_

_Jake snorted. “You know that's not true. They think this is my fault. That... that I know them. That... I don't... They think I made it up...”_

_“Impossible,” Lee said. Just looking over the damage was enough to say that Jake hadn't done this to himself. “Just rest. They're being idiots because they're panicking. They can't figure this out without you, so they're frustrated.”_

_“I didn't know them. I... I didn't see their faces. I... I might have heard a voice, but... That isn't enough. It'll never be enough.”_

* * *

“Well, he's taken a very severe blow to the head,” Ducky said, carefully probing the wound. “I would think it best if he was examined in a hospital, and I am worried by the fact that he has not woken since you found him.”

Jethro grunted. “You have machines here.”

“I do, but those are for the dead, and we already know that we are dealing with a highly traumatized individual. Waking up in one of those machines could put him so far back he wouldn't be able to help us with anything—assuming he saw or heard anything here.”

“Obviously there was a struggle,” Elanor said. “And not just the injury to Malloy. It looks a lot like he hit the back fender of the Jeep when he went down, but that doesn't explain the broken glass on the window of the passenger door or the mangled rear view mirror on this sedan.”

“I tend to agree,” Ducky said. “It would be my assumption that this young man was injured first, and his brother may have struggled with their attacker afterward. Unfortunately, it does seem that both of them lost this battle.”

Jethro nodded. “We're going to need everything we can get from both vehicles—and him.”

“That does not mean that I am going to take him inside and—”

“Um,” Elanor began, “I know that the morgue would likely frighten him, but I'm not sure the hospital would be much better. He mentioned it earlier, and it seemed to be one of his triggers. Not to mention that he has no good reason to trust doctors right now. His own was prescribing him drugs that are known to aggravate his condition. It's either negligence or it's something criminal, and we haven't even had a chance to go find out which one.”

“We will,” Jethro said, and Ducky did not doubt that he would head there that instant if not for the pressing matter of the other missing twin. “Where the hell is McGee with the surveillance video?”

“I'm sure he's working on it, and Abby too,” Elanor told him. “Oh, there you are, Palmer.”

“Sorry. It took a bit to get the gurney out of the van. It got caught and—he's not dead. Why did everyone tell me I needed to come pick up a body?” Palmer asked, frowning.

“Because it would seem no one here is willing to let this man leave our custody,” Ducky said with a sigh. “Come, Mr. Palmer. We need to get him up, at least out of the way of the crime scene. Elanor has already taken photographs of how he fell.”

“Right,” Palmer agreed, though with the small space between the vehicles, there was no good place to put the red board, no way to keep Malloy still as they moved him. That would have to wait until they could get him out of the confined space.

With Jethro's help, Palmer got their witness onto the board and then onto the stretcher. The older agent looked at him. “Take care of him, Duck.”

“Jethro, I do think that he would be better in the hands of someone who—”

“Not a doctor in the world I trust more than you, and he knows you now. That has to count for something,” Jethro insisted before turning back to the scene.

“No one could have predicted this,” Ducky reminded him. “Our killer should not have known where either of the twins was at this particular moment. We did not know that they would be attacked right outside our front door. The brazen nature of such an act suggests that it was not planned.”

“No such thing as coincidence.”

Ducky conceded that point. “Nevertheless, you are not to blame for this. You were the one who wanted to keep them here. We were the ones that did not stop them from leaving.”

“Yeah,” Elanor said. “We should at least have walked them out and set up a team to watch them because Malloy was always a witness. I guess... maybe it didn't seem that urgent because the killer has had years to go after him again and never did. Or maybe... I was just being too kind and wanted to give him a minute of peace after all I've put him through. I'm not sure.”

“This was not your doing, either,” Ducky told her, touching her arm. “And I do not doubt that we will find young Mr. Adama.”

“He damn well better be alive,” Jethro muttered.

* * *

_“Why did he even bother finding me?”_

_Karl frowned, caught off guard by the question. What the hell kind of a thing to ask was that? Was Jake saying that the kid who found him on campus that morning shouldn't have? Damn, Lee's brother was more messed up than Helo had known. Still, saying that he didn't think Jake was supposed to die that day was probably not going to help._

_At least Lee gave him pretty specific instructions on what to do if Jake got all moody. Distraction was a big one, but also reassurance, making sure Jake still knew he was wanted and mattered. That was weird coming from Karl, so he usually went for the first one._

_“You really that bad with directions? I thought that was Zak's problem.”_

_“That's my point,” Jake said, eyes on the distance again. “Lee has Zak. He has you, and you're a better brother than either of us has ever been. Why did Lee bother finding me in the first place?”_

_Karl winced. Damn. That was something he couldn't begin to answer. “You know what? I bet it was to screw with Kara.”_

_“What?”_

_“Oh, come on. Like he hasn't wanted to get one up on her since Annapolis,” Karl said. “Imagine what it would do if you totally messed with her head. Twins. It would be perfect.”_

_“So Lee wants me around so he can prank his wingman?”_

_“Well, you can be damned sure if Kara could do it to Lee, she would.”_

* * *

“Lieutenant Agathon, I believe I may have need of you soon.”

Karl swallowed, looking at the man on the gurney and shaking his head. He knew enough of Lee and Jake to be able to tell them apart with a glance, even without Jake's glasses and even if he hadn't known what Jake was wearing earlier, but this, whatever the hell it was, could not be good.

“Where's Lee?”

“That is the thing, I'm afraid,” the doctor went on. “When we located Mr. Malloy, his brother was not with him. There was a struggle. We believe that the other party involved was likely convinced that Malloy was dead and only bothered to take the one twin.”

Karl winced. He didn't want to believe this. This couldn't be happening, but then Lee wasn't an untrained, unarmed civilian. He wasn't his brother, and even though Jake didn't have half of that, he'd made it out alive. Broken, but alive. “Lee's strong. He's a fighter.”

“I do believe he put up one hell of one out there, but nevertheless he is missing, and I believe your help will be necessary, as you are the only other one that Mr. Malloy trusts,” the doctor said. “We will need you to help keep him calm. He may have witnessed his brother's abduction. It is difficult to be certain what he knows.”

Karl nodded, though that would be hell on anyone. Even he wasn't exactly calm about the idea of Lee being in the hands of that psycho. He'd seen what the guy did to Jake. And apparently at least one mark had gotten made on all the victims—including Sharon.

His friend was out there, and Karl couldn't help him. Couldn't save him.

“I know it is little consolation,” the doctor said, touching Karl's arm, “but as Mr. Adama's focus was always on protecting his brother, I think he would be glad to know that Mr. Malloy is in your hands, those of a friend.”

Karl tried to accept that, though it wasn't enough, not at all. “Lee. His name is Lee. He hates being called Adama. It's about his dad and a lot of other issues.”

“Understandable.”

“And Jake is just... Jake. He doesn't like the Malloy thing, either. He's not actually a Malloy because he got adopted, so...”

“Of course,” the doctor said. “I am Ducky. My last name gave rise to that nickname years ago, and it has stuck for decades.”

“Ducky,” Karl agreed. “I'm Helo. Call sign. Most people know it better than my name.”

The doctor smiled at him, and Karl found himself wondering why he'd bothered to say any of that. He knew he was right about it—neither Lee or Jake used their last names for much of anything, not when they didn't have to—and his own name was almost forgotten since he joined the navy, but that wasn't important. None of it was.

“We all cling to our last bits of normalcy in a circumstance like this,” Ducky told him. “And while you may not yet realize it, a part of you is in shock. You have your own emotions to deal with, and that is where that hint of the routine comes in. Here. Stay with Jakob for a minute while I make sure my assistant has the machine ready. We're just going to make sure that there isn't anything going on in his head that we can't handle here.”

“Good idea,” Karl told him. The doctor frowned. “It... Let's just say it was really bad for Jake at the hospital. He was a mess. It... he... He ended up in the psych ward, and if Lee hadn't managed to get him out of there, he'd be dead now.”

* * *

_“No. Never again.”_

_“Jake, it's a library. Not a prison.”_

_Jake shook his head. “I can't. Maybe I could go inside, but if I go out of the doors... that's where it started. I was at the library. I had a few books. If I hadn't cut across campus in the dark...”_

_Lee sighed. This shouldn't be that difficult, but he knew better. Years with his mother had taught him that nothing simple was ever that way, and while she wasn't like this because someone else had hurt her, he had learned the hard way that you never knew what set someone off. Helping was sometimes okay, other times..._

_It hurt for days._

_Jake had never done that, not even in a blind panic. He'd yet to hurt Lee in any way. Even blind panic hadn't managed that, and that mattered._

_“It's daytime, and the point of this is to prove that you can do things like this again. It's not going to end with them getting you or you being hurt. It's about taking back your life.”_

_Jake snorted. “What life? I sit at a desk and pretend I'm useful to my family's corrupt company. That's not a life.”_

_“You could still finish your law degree—”_

_“No,” Jake said, yanking on the door handle. “No. Not going back. Not—I can't. It's poisoned. It's... I... No.”_

_Lee reached over and caught his brother's arm before he jumped out of the car. “Okay. No law school. No library, either. What about... a book store?”_

* * *

“Has he woken up yet?”

Agathon shook his head, and Ellie could tell that he was worried, pacing around. She wondered if bringing Thrace down with him would help or hurt. That relationship was one she hadn't figured out yet, though she'd seen some tension as well as what she thought was affection.

“No, and I think that doctor of yours is worried,” Agathon admitted. “So am I. I mean... The guy... he did get permanent damage before. It was mostly his eyes. He's like... legally blind without the glasses, and there's nothing they can do about it.”

Ellie nodded. She'd figured that out herself, not from his file, not from anything anyone had said. It went back to their moment in the bookstore. She'd thought of him as Clark Kent, but later mulling over had gotten her to where she thought he'd adjusted the glasses on purpose. She wasn't sure why that said he was blind without them, not entirely, but she'd been sure of it anyway.

“I just came to see if...” Ellie shook her head. “I actually need to ask about his doctor. I remember almost everything I read, but I didn't look at the right part of the bottle to see the name of the prescribing doctor, but given what we now know—”

“Damn. You think Jake's doctor was involved in this somehow?”

Ellie grimaced. “It's possible she made a really bad mistake, but I have to wonder if she wasn't... She may have prescribed those drugs on purpose to keep him on edge. If he was too stressed, too panicked, he couldn't hope to remember anything new, and even more than that—”

“He'd have gone crazy and killed himself,” Agathon finished. “If she wanted that—”

“Gibbs is going to go talk to her,” Ellie said. “And I don't envy her that conversation at all.”

“She deserves it,” Agathon said. “Doing that to him? That's messed up. He... Gods, he never hurt anyone. He's too nice, even when he's half out of his head.”

“I thought that about him when he gave up his book to me and then didn't want anything after I spilled coffee on him,” Ellie said. “Of course, I didn't know about the rest of this, but he seemed... kind. I hated that I'd ruined his day like that.”

Agathon gave her a slight smile. “Nah, you made his week. He just hasn't realized it yet.”

“What?”

“Trust me, if you'd really seen Lee and Kara, you'd understand.”

Ellie shook her head, not sure she wanted to know. “I just thought I'd offer the macaroons again, and the name of the doctor. I meant to get it. Do you know who she is?”

“Yeah. Sorry. She's... Um... Tory Foster.”

“Thank you,” Ellie told him, and Agathon nodded to her, turning his worried eyes back to Malloy. She wished she knew some way of comforting him, but she knew that the statistics weren't in Adama's favor, and beyond that... well, considering that this killer targeted twins or people who could be twins, that they'd already tortured one of them—things did not look good for the other.

A noise startled her, and she looked back at Malloy just as Agathon rushed forward to catch him, keeping him from falling all the way to the floor off the small cot.

“Lee said you were bad with small spaces, but I didn't realize it was that bad,” Agathon joked, and Malloy's eyes shot open. He groaned. “Easy, now. We need to get you back up there again.”

“You have a convertible so you can have the top down and not feel confined,” Ellie said, and Malloy looked at her. “Sorry. Thinking out loud. Bad habit of mine. If I don't have music, I do it all the time.”

“Where's Lee?” Malloy asked, looking around in a panic. “Helo, where's Lee?”

Agathon started to help him back up. “Let's just get you up again and—”

“No,” Malloy said, pushing away from Agathon. He didn't move very far, his hand going to his head. He felt for his glasses, touching his face and grimacing as he did. “It's... it was supposed to be another nightmare.”

Ellie knelt down next to him. “Did you see your brother get taken?”

“No... I...” Malloy lowered his head. “I couldn't stop it.”

“No one is blaming you, Jake. Not then and not now.”

Malloy didn't even look at Agathon. Ellie bit her lip and then reached out to touch his hand. His eyes darted up to her, and she could see how fast he was breathing, panting like he couldn't catch his breath. She tried giving him a reassuring smile, but then she remembered what Agathon had said about his vision.

“We didn't find your glasses, not yet,” she said. “I'm sorry. We are still looking over the whole parking lot. I just had to ask Lieutenant Agathon—Helo—a question and I'll be heading back out again. We are going to find your brother.”

Malloy shook. “I... I thought I was wrong... that voice... It couldn't have been... I was just paranoid...”

Ellie stared at him. “You recognized the man's voice?”

“I... I don't know. Maybe? It... I only have pieces... I thought I was wrong,” Malloy said. He faltered, reaching out for something to stop himself from collapsing, though he went toward her instead of Agathon. She ended up with a lap full of traumatized businessman as he shook, unable to get himself up despite his efforts.

“Jake, it's okay,” Agathon told him. “We are going to find him.” 

“Not... okay,” Malloy insisted. “Lee... this is... all my fault.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation proceeds. Slowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had one of those nights where I started to write, was dissatisfied with it, and I put it aside overnight. In the morning, I knew how to fix it, mostly, and I tried, but it still was difficult and not quite what I was hoping for. Still, I knew that the part at the end would come, and I snuck in a little moment for myself because... well, I am hopeless.

* * *

_“What do you do for fun?”_

_Jake shook his head. “I'm boring, Lee. I thought we established that when we first met.”_

_Lee laughed. “You said you weren't the college cliché. You're more than studying. We've done some drinking together, more than once, so it's not like you can't party a little. That's not the same as being completely boring. And even if you didn't drink, you wouldn't be. Though I think some people might call you a nerd.”_

_“You're only saying that because you were,” Jake said. “I bet you were top of your class at Annapolis.”_

_“Who told you that?”_

_“You did. Just now.”_

_Lee sighed. “It's not that obvious, is it?”_

_“That you're a messed up perfectionist overachiever with Daddy issues?” Jake asked. “That was kind of obvious from the beginning, too.”_

_“Like you're not. There is something to this twin thing, isn't there?”_

_Jake shrugged. “You're just saying that.”_

_“Sure I am. Just where are you in your class, anyway?” Lee asked. “First, aren't you?”_

_“Second,” Jake corrected defensively, and Lee just laughed._

* * *

“Come on,” Karl said, knowing he had to do something to calm Jake down again. He actually thought it was helping that he'd fallen on the agent—physical contact was sometimes good for this sort of thing, though it was risky, too, since either Lee or his brother could be set off by it again. Lee because his mother was an abusive drunk and Jake because he thought it was someone trying to kill him. Still, Karl had seen it work best when Lee held his brother, even if neither of them was willing to let it happen that much. “It wasn't your fault.”

“We.. were safe... but... Lee wanted... to leave... because of me.”

Bishop shook her head. “Gibbs didn't want you to go. Ducky and I thought it would be okay. Blame us if you want. We should have known better.”

Jake looked up at her, trying to move himself out of her lap again. He stopped, gagging. “Dizzy.”

“Just stay put. Ducky should be back in a second, and we'll get you taken care of.”

“I... should have... voice... sooner...”

“Do you know his name? Recognize anything but the sound of his voice?” Bishop asked, moving her hand to Jake's back and turning it in circles. He tensed but didn't try to run. He closed his eyes, accepting it, and his body relaxed, losing some of its tension.

“Just... voice...”

Karl shook his head. He wanted to hit something, but doing that would only upset Jake again. Lee would spend days with the punching bag after a visit to his brother. It wasn't hard to see why. The whole thing was so damned frustrating, and it wasn't even like there was someone to blame. Karl didn't blame the agents. They couldn't help setting Jake off, and they'd actually been kind about letting him go, which was more than the police had done in the past.

These ones—they just might be able to do what the others hadn't. They'd catch this bastard, put him away, end the nightmare for good.

Karl just hoped that they found Lee in time.

“I... I knew better... never go... outside... dark... not... after that... night.”

Bishop frowned. She was probably thinking the same thing Karl was—it wasn't about him going out in the damned dark. That wasn't why this happened. It wasn't his fault. “What do you remember about that night?”

“Was... at library... now... don't even know... why...”

Karl wasn't sure he knew all the details of that night. All he knew was that Jake had been attacked on campus, held for two days, and then dumped back on campus. He'd heard a few things over the years, but never the whole story. Only Jake knew that, and he didn't remember it, not all of it.

“What did you get at the library?”

“Books.”

Bishop laughed, smiling as she did. “Any in particular?”

“Was... one... military... justice... think that... was... one... he hit... me... with.”

“Did you pick that one because of your brother?”

“Shh... don't tell... Lee...” Jake whispered, and Bishop grinned, though her smile stopped as soon as she realized he'd passed out on her. That had her frowning again. Karl supposed he could offer to take Jake off her hands, but waking him now would only panic him. It didn't sound like Jake knew all that much that could help them find his brother anyway.

Still, Karl couldn't help thinking it was pretty damned messed up that seemed like a good thing.

* * *

_“Tell us about the man who took you.”_

_Jake frowned. He looked at Lee, and his brother nodded. They were actually asking him about it again. He wasn't confused, and he wasn't remembering wrong. He was being asked the same question. Again._

_“I didn't see him,” Jake said. “And... there were two of them.”_

_“If you didn't see them, how are you so sure there were two of them?”_

_Jake looked at his hands, at the bandages around them. Sometimes he thought that he couldn't be sure, but that moment... dark as it was, horrible as it was, he thought it was there, almost burned into his mind._

_“Well? How do you know there were two?”_

_Jake shook his head. “I already told you.”_

_“No, you didn't,” the detective disagreed. “Tell us about the man who took you.”_

* * *

“Well?” Gibbs demanded, looking down at his agent. Instead of working on the parking lot, she was holding their witness. Why the hell was she there and not Agathon?

“He was awake,” Bishop reported. “He figured out his brother was gone, and he... he panicked but he did answer a few questions. Then... eventually, he lost consciousness again. Not sure if that was the panic attack or just the obvious concussion.”

Gibbs shook his head. “Getting damned sick of not being able to talk to him.”

“It's not like he's doing it on purpose,” Agathon said. He shook his head, frustrated, and Gibbs figured had been through this before. “He tries. He really does, but when this stuff triggers him, there's nothing he can do.”

“Except—good news—he may have heard the killer's voice,” Bishop said. “We'll have to find a way to get him samples, but he knew enough to identify it when he heard it again tonight. Same person. He knew it was the killer.”

Gibbs frowned. That was something, but it wasn't enough. They didn't have any samples of the man's voice to share with their witness. They didn't even have a place to start looking. The city was home to millions. They needed something better than that.

“Here,” Bishop said, holding out a piece of paper to him. “This is the name of his doctor, the woman that gave him the Darvonex prescription. She may know more. If she did it on purpose, she has to be working with the killer. I have no idea why, but it is possible.”

Gibbs nodded. He had already had that thought himself, several times, which was why he wanted the woman's name. “Get with DiNozzo and McGee. I want to know why we don't have a damned plate yet.”

“If he knew he was coming to NCIS, he may have done something to obscure the plate on the video,” Bishop said, and Gibbs gave her a look. “If we're right and the killer was using Malloy's doctor to keep him from naming him—which may have been possible since he recognized a voice—then they could have been monitoring him all along. They would know that NCIS went to see him and his brother. Or it's just possible that now that they have finished the pair with Sharon Valerii and the Athena woman, they turned their attention back to the original victim and his twin. Adama isn't marked. Yet.”

“Meaning he'll be alive for a while, right?” Agathon asked. “I mean, it's Lee. He'll give them hell and probably survive because Adamas don't know how to quit, but that does mean they won't kill him right away, doesn't it?”

Bishop bit her lip. “I'm not sure. They did kill Valerii in a short period of time, but if they're going for even times between the two parts of the pair—well, they had his brother for two days, so maybe. It's hard to be sure. If we knew more of their motivation, why they picked twins or dopplegangers, then we might have a better idea, but we're still looking at the best option being finding him immediately. We closed the lot, so if he hadn't already left, he can't get out now, but that doesn't help if he was already gone when Gibbs found Malloy. All of it happened rather fast, though—wait. If he was able to get Adama in the car that fast—”

“It had to have been parked close to the Cherokee,” Gibbs said. “Find it. If he wakes up again, I want to know.”

* * *

_“He doesn't need restraints,” Lee said, tempted to rip them off with his bare hands. He knew that he couldn't, even if he was angry, but that didn't make him want to do it any less. Jake wasn't insane. He didn't have to be held down like this._

_“He tried get out of the bed.”_

_“A week ago he was in a coma and people weren't thinking he'd move again,” Lee said, shaking his head at the doctor's stupidity._

_“His feet are broken,” the doctor said. “He can't walk on them, but he won't stop trying to. He panics blindly, and he cannot be reasoned with.”_

_Lee grimaced. He didn't think they'd even tried._

* * *

“Are we done yet?” Kara asked, looking over at the agents. She didn't understand why they were still sitting here. She had told them all she knew, and they were going to have to find the right base on their own. She didn't know which one she'd been at when she saw the damned thing, and she didn't care.

Well, she did. A little. She didn't want to have Lee's brother suffering.

His brother.

That was so frakking weird. Lee had a twin. His twin wasn't like him, not at all. That scaredy cat, that wasn't Lee. That was so unlike Lee it was hard to believe. If she hadn't seen that, she'd still think Lee was faking it as a prank, but he wasn't. She'd seen him with his brother, and that guy was screwed up more than anyone she'd ever seen, including her mother.

“Just a second,” the computer nerd said, frowning at his screen. “This can't be right.”

“What, that my mother was a world class screw up?” Kara asked. “Why is that any sort of surprise?”

“No, actually, it's not about your mother's service record,” he said, grimacing. “Sorry. I had to consult the feed for the security cameras outside, and I'm not sure I believe what I'm seeing.”

“You kept me here while you watched a boring video?” Kara demanded. She shook her head, pushing herself up from the table. No way was she staying for this. She was not waiting. She was going to find Lee, bust his ass for lying to her, and then they would probably all end up drunk.

“Actually, we kept you here because we're keeping everyone here,” the other agent told her. She frowned, and so did computer nerd. “Our parking lot is a crime scene, and no one is going in or out right now. You get to enjoy our hospitality for a bit longer.”

“A crime scene?” Kara didn't believe this. “Look, if I wanted to be stuck somewhere, I'd still be on the damned ship. I'm on liberty. I want to go out and enjoy it, and you do not want to stop me.”

“I think if you knew why we were on lockdown, you would probably understand—though I'm betting you'd punch something first,” DiNozzo told her, and Kara frowned. “Seeing as how we're not likely to keep you still without telling you—your friend Lieutenant Commander Adama and his brother were attacked in the parking lot.”

Kara swallowed, trying to push down the feeling in her stomach. She refused to puke. “What happened?”

“Malloy was hit over the head, bad, and left for dead a second time. Adama is... MIA.”

“Lee is missing?” Kara repeated, sure she'd heard something wrong, though she was afraid DiNozzo was right. She wanted to hit something. “How the hell did that happen?”

“According to what we know so far, the twins were walking to their car when they ran into someone. Malloy was hit, Adama fought, and it looks like he was taken in another vehicle.”

Kara shook her head. “Unbelievable.”

DiNozzo shook his head. “This is not our strangest case. Trust me.”

“I don't care if it's your strangest. What the frak are you doing talking to me when you should be looking for Lee?”

“I am,” McGee said. “Reviewing the security footage is something we do. We're trying to find the car that took Lieutenant Commander Adama. We need a make and model if we can't get the plate, which it doesn't seem we can get the plate.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “And that's it? Lee's gone, and you just look at videos?”

“No, we've got a lot to do, but these days, McGee does a lot of it because a lot of it is digital. Records, video, all of that combines to make the tedious stuff I did in my early days of being a detective a lot easier,” DiNozzo said. “Besides that, we've got forensics from the car and an eye witness, though according to your other buddy, that witness is legally blind without his glasses.”

“Great.”

“There's a reason we still need to find the significance and location of that mark,” McGee said. “If we can't track this guy from the security cameras, we're going to need to know a lot more about the past. That is why we're still working with you.”

“I don't know anything. I just want to go find Lee.”

“Well, unless you know who took him, that's not going to happen.”

Kara started pacing. “Fine. Tell me what I have to do to get him back.”

* * *

_“I don't know where Helo parked, but I know I'm not that far from the door,” Lee said, trying to guide his brother toward the car as quickly as possible. He knew that Jake would have issues with how dark it was, and even though Lee had parked as close as he possibly could, he knew that there was still a lot of distance to cover for Jake. With as bad as he'd been shaken earlier, they couldn't afford to delay even for a second. “Come on. The car is over this way. We're going to walk a little bit and then we're done.”_

_“If you start talking to me like a little kid—”_

_“Hey, I know better than that,” Lee said, wincing. He knew better than that. Jake hated it, and Lee didn't like making him feel humiliated. Jake tried hard to get past this, all of it, and it wasn't like panicking made him a baby or a child. He shouldn't be treated like one. “Though I admit, it worked a lot better with Mom than it ever has with you.”_

_“I'm not an idiot.”_

_“I shouldn't find that funny,” Lee muttered, though he had to admit, he could agree about their mother. She wasn't just a drunk. She was a mean, stupid drunk._

_“Like either of us has any respect for our mother,” Jake said, starting to struggle to breathe. “I hate this. I wish it wasn't dark. I think if we'd left earlier, I'd be okay.”_

_“I'm sorry,” Lee said. He shouldn't have come, shouldn't have made Jake think he had to come after him, and he should have gotten his brother out of there a long time ago “I was trying to keep all of this from coming back on you. Sharon was my shipmate. This shouldn't have had anything to do with you.”_

_“If those men killed her—”_

_“Jake, think about that after we get in the car,” Lee insisted, refusing to let his brother start down that path. He couldn't blame himself, couldn't give into the guilt. That would destroy him. “We are not turning our back on Sharon or anyone else, but I'm not about to lose you because someone thinks they have to push to get your memories back. That never worked before. It's not like you're trying to hide them—you have legitimate medical reasons why you don't remember anything from that weekend. You shouldn't be punished for that.”_

_“Adama.”_

_Lee heard his name and turned to find the person who'd called out to him. Jake backed away, and Lee hoped he was going for the car._

_“You know anything about why they called us in? What the hell does NCIS want? I told them on the phone I didn't think I could help, but they insisted.”_

_That didn't feel right. NCIS hadn't made any secret of why they'd spoken to him, Helo, or Jake, and they hadn't called them in, either. “Sir, I'm not sure—”_

_“Lee,” Jake said, and Lee heard the panic in his voice. He sounded bad again, and Lee shook his head. Damn the dark. This was ridiculous, but maybe it would be over if NCIS actually found this bastard. “That... the... sound...”_

_“I'm sorry, sir, I have to go,” Lee said, not looking back as he hurried back to his brother's side. He took his arm, ushering him toward the car. “Come on. A few more steps—”_

_“His voice,” Jake said, yanking on Lee's shirt. “It... I... I know it.”_

_“What?” Lee asked, tempted to look back. Jake couldn't actually mean that was one of the men who'd hurt him, could he? That wasn't possible. “No, don't stop walking. You can't panic now. We're not far from the car.”_

_“It... Who was... I think... it can't actually be one of them... It...”_

_“I told him letting you live was a mistake,” the officer said, grabbing hold of Jake. Jake tried to push him off, but he got shoved backward, stumbling and hitting the fender of the Jeep. He didn't even try to get back up._

_Lee went after the man in a rage. His brother had to be alive. Jake hadn't survived all of that to die now. Lee was going to stop them. He was not going to let this bastard get away with what he'd done to Jake, to anyone._

_Anger fueled him, and he fought, slamming the other man into his Jeep. He hit Lee back, knocking him into the sedan. Lee's side hit the mirror, and he swore, pain making it difficult to breathe. He shook it off, rushing the other man. He slammed the guy back, and he heard his window shatter._

_Something poked him in the back and he reached behind him, pulling out a syringe._

_“And I'm the impulsive one,” another voice muttered. “You just had to do it, didn't you? I wasn't done with Malloy.”_

_“Too bad. He's dead,” the first one snapped. “Now help me with Adama.”_

* * *

Lee dragged his eyes open, frowning. What the frak? Where was he?

He tried to sit up and couldn't. His body was still mostly numb. He looked up, seeing his hands bound above his head. He pulled on them, testing the bond, but it was tight. He wasn't going anywhere, not from that.

He looked around, his eyes drawn to the red splattered along the wall.

“Like it?”

Lee shook his head. What kind of a sick question was that?

“Some of that belongs to your brother. You wanted to know what happened to him, didn't you? You've wanted him to remember, to tell the world... He won't, and you won't, but you will know exactly what happened to him before you die.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some small pieces try to come together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hit one of those snags with a long work day and a migraine, and that pushed back progress on this by a lot. Then I tried my hand at original fiction, failed miserably, and that was another setback. 
> 
> I admit, seeing the previews for next week's just made it worse. I don't even know why I sit through episodes of season fourteen.

* * *

_“Do you want to meet them?”_

_Jake frowned, looking over Lee with a frown. “Meet who?”_

_“Zak. Mom. Dad. Any of them.”_

_Jake didn't know how to answer that. From what little Lee had told him, their mother was responsible for all of this, though she wasn't alone—their father hadn't even been around to realize his wife was having two sons, not just one. That made it hard to want to see either of them. He wasn't sure about Zak. That was still strange to him, a concept he couldn't quite grasp hold of, even if it should be easier._

_“It's okay if you don't. It's not like... Well, technically, they are family, but only by blood, and that doesn't mean what it should, not all the time.”_

_Jake sighed. “I don't know. It's... it's kind of a switch for me. This whole thing is. My parents were... distant, you know. Barely a part of my life. I've never been all that close to anyone. Now I have you, and it's almost... impossible not to be close. Not that we have to be because we're twins but it just somehow feels... natural.”_

_Lee smiled. “I know what you mean. We've only known each other for a few days, one leave, but in some ways... you and I are closer than me and Zak. Which is wrong, but at the same time... I have told you things I never told him. I don't... I'm not sure why.”_

_“You think that it's maybe a little like talking to a mirror? It's not like we don't look the same.”_

_Lee snorted. “You talk back. If my mirror did that, I'd know I was crazy.”_

_“You think you're not?” Jake asked. “Isn't that a prerequisite for being a naval aviator?”_

_That just made his brother laugh._

* * *

“Ah, good. You're awake again,” Ducky said as his young patient opened his eyes. He had been concerned when he returned to find him once again unconscious, but that had not lasted as long as any of them might have feared. He was awake, though it would be another moment before Ducky would know if he was coherent.

“My head... hurts,” Malloy said, grimacing as he reached up to touch it. “A lot.”

“I imagine so,” Ducky agreed, kneeling to get a better look at it. “The bleeding already stopped, and the stitches seem to be holding, though I would have hoped you wouldn't strain them too much. How are you feeling besides the head?”

“Um... nauseous,” he said, closing his eyes and swallowing. “I... Trying not to be sick.”

“You do have a concussion,” Elanor said, looking down at him with a slight smile, though Ducky had a feeling if he were to be ill on her she would not be so supportive. “No one would blame you if you were.”

Malloy almost jumped up, bumping Elanor as he did. He winced and backed away from her, struggling to keep himself sitting up. “Um... Sorry. I... I didn't mean to—you shouldn't have had to—I'm not sure how that happened—”

“It's fine,” Elanor told him. “I figure my supervisor might have preferred it if you had ended up on your friend instead, but I—I was just glad I was able to help, even in a small way, since I have caused you a lot of trouble since we first met.”

He frowned. “I... You did... I would still be taking the Darvonex if you hadn't said something. I already... owe you. And if you find Lee...”

“Easy,” Agathon said, getting Malloy's attention. “You were doing good there when you first woke. Hold onto that. You're okay. Safe. I know Lee is gone, but we are going to find him. You're going to help.”

Malloy shook his head, then gagged and leaned back, trying valiantly not to vomit. “I told you—I don't remember. Why doesn't anyone believe that?”

“It's not that we don't believe you,” Elanor said, “you already told us you recognized the voice of the man who took your brother tonight—”

“I did?”

She nodded, though her eyes went to Ducky's with a question and possible panic of her own. “You did. You... do remember the voice, don't you?”

Malloy put his hand to his head. He winced, and Ducky thought that he was still trying to control his stomach. “I... I think I heard it before. I... I'm not sure. I—there isn't much from... from that time. I... I do remember being about to leave the library. I don't... I can't... I can't think.”

“I believe you could use something for the pain as well as a true examination at the hospital—”

“No,” Malloy said, starting to shake. “Not there. Please. Not there. I... I can't go back there. Not again. Helo, please...”

“I told them that wouldn't go over well,” Agathon said. “Though I'm not so sure you want your care all in the hands of—”

“It might be better not to make a big deal out of that detail,” Elanor advised. “I think Ducky's right. Are you usually okay with over the counter pills? I know that might not seem like much for a concussion, but I don't think Ducky wants to give you anything stronger under the circumstances.”

Malloy managed to look at him. “I... I don't think I want anything stronger. Already... made that mistake once today.”

“I think the day might have changed by now,” Agathon said. “Not sure. Didn't wear a watch.”

Ducky grimaced. It was late for all of them, with most of them not getting any sleep the night before, but that would have to wait even longer with Adama still missing. “Let's get you something for that head, shall we?”

* * *

_“It doesn't feel.. real. Almost like... it's not my body anymore.”_

_Lee frowned. That didn't make sense. Yes, they had Jake on so many painkillers he was pretty much high, and he had moments where he didn't realize his feet were broken, but that Lee blamed on the drugs. That and his lack of memory. Jake didn't remember them being broken, and the drugs kept him from remembering that he'd been told they were._

_Still, Jake wasn't paralyzed. He had suffered brain damage—his memory of those days was gone, and he was almost blind. That didn't make his body not his, though._

_“You know it's still you.”_

_Jake shook his head. “I... I keep finding marks. Scars. I can't see all of them, but if I touch my arm... if I try to walk... They did so much tome, and I can't... I don't know what they did. I don't know how. I... I don't want to know, but then... how is this still me? How did I get this scar on my arm? Or this one on my shoulder? And those aren't even the worst ones. There's... so many more of them.”_

_Lee grimaced. That wasn't something he knew how to help his brother with. His mother never cared if she left behind marks when she got drunk, not on him or even on herself._

_“I guess you just needed to be sure they could tell us apart, huh?”_

_Jake shook his head. “That was not funny.”_

_“I know,” Lee admitted. “Look, whatever it is, no matter how bad it seems, we're going to get you through this, okay?”_

_“You have a ship to get back to.”_

_Lee shrugged. He'd find a way to make this work even if he had to go AWOL to do it. He was not leaving his brother. Not now._

* * *

“You got something for me, Abs?”

“For you?” Abby asked, turning around to face Tony. She put her hands on her hips and eyed him with suspicion. “Since when do I give my information to you?”

He frowned. “You share information with me, even without me being in charge because Gibbs is gone. Where's the love? Where's the friendship? I'm hurt. Truly hurt.”

She laughed. “No need to be hurt. I do have something for you. I want to ask what you have for me, but I know you can't leave the lot right now—well, not without a good reason, and while I consider a Caf-Pow a good reason, I know others would disagree.”

“Gibbs went to go confront Malloy's doctor, which means he will very likely return with one for you,” Tony said, and Abby smiled. She could look forward to that. A Caf-Pow for later would be good. “And I can always make a vending machine run for you, assuming Bishop hasn't emptied it already.”

Abby shook her head. Ellie might snack a lot, but she had never gone through the whole vending machine, and she wouldn't. Even someone who liked food as much as she did had things she wouldn't eat, and that vending machine had a few of them. Abby had heard the complaints, and she had offered some of her lab cookies as consolation.

“Why did you really come down to my lab?”

“Waiting to see if McGee survives Thrace on his own,” Tony said, and Abby frowned. “Kidding. I'm really here for the evidence. Thrace is two steps from a warpath, and I would really like to be able to say we have something. So far, all we have is a picture from the camera at the gate.”

“Which should have given you everything.”

“Ah, but our kidnapper decided to obscure his license plate with something before coming to the lot,” Tony said. “As soon as Thrace heard that, she demanded he fix it, and I figured he was busy enough without me.”

Abby looked at him. “Why are you letting her bully McGee?”

“He can take it, and besides, this way I get to spend time with you,” Tony said, which was a little hard to be mad at, even if she didn't know that it was entirely true. He leaned in close to her. “So what have we got? Anything new on Valerii or have we actually gotten something on our missing lieutenant commander?”

“I should be able to prove whether or not they are actually twins soon enough,” Abby said, and Tony grinned at her. She knew he wanted to know. “The tests are still running. I am actually thinking of putting that puzzle back together.”

Tony looked back at the table. “You're going to put the whole window back together?”

She nodded. “I have to run tests on it anyway. I need to know who hit it. If it wasn't Adama, then we might have something from our kidnapper. I won't know until I've gone over every piece.”

Tony grimaced. “Maybe we should escape lock-down and get you some more caffeine. You're going to need it.”

“Or I could just get some help from one very special agent DiNozzo.”

“Uh...”

* * *

_Lee looked over at his brother again, trying to decide if he thought he could do this. He didn't know how to feel about leaving Jake on his own. He shouldn't think that, but Jake wasn't the same, not after the attack. At first, Lee had thought Jake was going to be able to cope after he was released from the hospital, but then his brother ended up in the psych ward, locked away, afraid he'd hurt someone or himself. Lee didn't believe Jake would ever hurt anyone, but that didn't mean he wouldn't harm himself._

_The stupidest thing about this was that Jake somehow blamed himself for the attack. Nothing he'd said about that night made that seem real. He didn't know the men who attacked him, never saw them, and even if he had, that didn't make it his fault. Nothing Lee knew of his brother merited the kinds of things those sick bastards had done to him. Even if his brother was a stranger, that still didn't hold up. No one deserved what they'd done to Jake._

_“I know you have to go back to your ship.”_

_Lee nodded. “If you think that I should stay—”_

_“I... I know I'm not where I was before this happened,” Jake said. He swallowed. “You... You've done more than you had to.”_

_Lee shook his head. “It's not about what I have to do. This isn't an obligation, Jake.”_

_“You barely know me.”_

_“Doesn't matter.”_

_“I... I'll be fine.”_

_Lee didn't know that he believed that._

* * *

“Headache any better?”

“Maybe a little,” Jake said, trying to force a smile for Bishop. Karl saw it, knowing what Kara would say if she'd seen it—though then again, she might not. She never wanted to see anything from Lee, that was for sure.

“I'm glad,” Bishop told him. “We should move you off the floor if you think you're up to it.”

Jake nodded, and Karl moved over to help him up. He waited, trying to see if Jake was going to get dizzy or stumble. He seemed okay, though Karl wasn't sure that would last. Even stitched up and bandaged, the wound on his head looked nasty.

“I do have some crackers in my desk, too, if you want to try some. They might help with the nausea,” Bishop offered. “In the meantime, let's go up to the conference room. That should be a lot more comfortable than this.”

“I... Thanks,” Jake said, and she smiled at him as she lead them out of the room.

Karl was tempted to nudge him, but he figured that Jake would fall over if he did. He leaned closer to him, aware of the other man tensing up. “I think she likes you.”

Jake frowned. “She's... she's just being nice.”

“Nice?” Karl shook his head. “You don't hold people through panic attacks just because you're being nice.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Fine. Then it's pity. You saw how pathetic I was. So did she.”

“Yes, but before all that, she met you in one of those cute, quirky little things that would be the start of some funny story about your relationship,” Karl said, getting an eyeroll from him. Anyone that heard it would think the whole conversation was stupid and inappropriate, but Karl knew it was working. He wanted to keep Jake distracted until it was time to get him talking about the attack again. This would keep him calm until then, and that was good.

“I can't believe you're doing this.”

Karl laughed, helping him forward. “Of course you can. You know me. All about the laughs.”

Jake shook his head, but he managed to walk after the agent and toward the conference room without an incident, which was all Karl wanted. He wasn't about to let Jake break down, not when he was their best chance at finding Lee.

He might not have seen the guy, but he'd heard him.

Karl followed him into the conference room, almost bumping into his back. Jake had stopped inside the door, which didn't bode well.

“Damn,” Kara said. “You're a mess, aren't you? I'd almost say you were Lee, but he wasn't wearing that when I saw him last.”

Jake moved away from her, and Bishop ushered him over to a chair on the other side of the room. She forced a smile. “McGee, don't you think you could work on that at your desk? Or maybe in Abby's lab?”

“Gladly,” the other agent said, gathering up his computer and hurrying out of the room.

“Hey, wait. You're not done,” Kara said, going after him. Karl was kind of relieved to see her go. She would only make this more difficult, and Jake didn't need that. He was going to have a hard enough time dealing with past without Kara complicating things.

“Sorry about that,” Bishop told Jake. “I'd forgotten they brought her in here to interview her.”

“It's fine,” Karl said. “Jake and Kara have met. They... don't exactly get along, but that'll come later. Really, he just needs to watch his brother with her. That'll change everything. They've got... a very unique friendship. I'm surprised she's still here and not off looking for Lee herself.”

“The whole yard was put on lockdown when Adama first went missing,” Bishop said. “She couldn't leave then. I'm not sure if it's been lifted yet. I was a little... busy.”

“Sorry,” Jake said, a little red. “I didn't—”

“Really, you don't need to apologize,” Bishop said, and Karl almost nudged him again, but that wasn't necessary anymore. “Though... I am hoping you can tell us a bit more about what happened to you. Like Gibbs said, it's about the questions we think to ask, the details you don't even know you know. Not that I'm suggesting you held anything back—I just think you may not know the significance of it. So... I just... you were telling us about leaving the library...?”

Jake swallowed. “I... I checked out books. I started toward to my room, but I had a full backpack, wanted to go their faster. I started across the lawn, walked past a tree—almost hit it—I backed into someone. He took my backpack. Someone... someone grabbed me. Choked me. I couldn't... I couldn't breathe...”

“Easy,” Karl said, wanting him to stay calm, as hard as that had to be remembering that. “You can breathe now. Just remember that.”

Jake nodded. “I... I know. It's just... that part...”

“Always makes you feel like you can't breathe because you couldn't in that moment,” Bishop said, grimacing. “You... you said he hit you with one of the books you checked out. You thought it was the one on military justice.”

“He... he said that I wouldn't ever need another book. No, his exact words were, 'you have a lot of books in here, too bad you won't ever need one again.'”

“And that is the voice you heard earlier, the one who took your brother?”

Jake started shaking. “I... I don't know. I... it seems like him... almost like... the one that spoke... cutting my side... but... I'm not sure. I don't... there are only two parts... that are... clear. Right before... was hit... and the one... with the knife...”

“Okay,” Bishop said, reaching over and then stopping herself. “You don't have to tell us anything more right now. Just take a few minutes and breathe.”

Jake sighed. “I really... hate this.”

* * *

_Lee woke up in a panic, staring at his bunk in confusion. For a minute there, he'd sworn he was somewhere else. He reached down and touched his side, pushing up his shirt to see nothing marring his side. He let out a breath in relief, though a part of him hated himself for doing it. He was the lucky one. He hadn't been taken and tortured._

_Still... if they'd taken his twin, why not him?_

_Was he safe just because he'd been deployed when those sickos decided to go after someone? Was it because Jake was in college? Was that the only difference?_

_He turned over in his bunk, trying to ignore how unsettled the dream had made him._

_“Apollo,” Helo said from above him. “You good down there?”_

_“What the frak, Helo?” Lee asked. “Why are you asking me that?”_

_“I think you know. For a minute there, you were doing a damned good impression of your brother.”_

* * *

Gibbs didn't care how late it was. He knew that others would argue that talking to Malloy's doctor could wait, maybe even should wait, but he needed to be doing something. His team had forensics to work on, connections to make, and witnesses to protect, but he wasn't going to stand around and wait for Malloy to regain consciousness again.

No, he wanted answers, and if Tory Foster had them, then Gibbs was going to get them. Now.

Adama was running out of time. He might have two days—if the killers were using the same time period for him as they were his brother, but if they used something closer to Valerii's, then Adama could already be dead.

No waiting. No being polite and courteous.

He knocked on the door, making sure he was loud enough to wake the doctor out of her sleep no matter how deep it was. He waited. Nothing. He gave it another pounding, growing more impatient by the second. She should be here.

He took out his phone, tempted to smack the door a third time. “Abby, confirm that Tory Foster is at her house.”

“Not even a please?” Abby said. “Gibbs—”

“I need to know if I'm wasting my time here,” Gibbs said. “Adama could be dead. If she knows anything—”

“Her cellphone GPS is showing her at her house, as is her car,” Abby answered. “If she went somewhere else, she went without both of those things.”

Gibbs thanked her and hung up, putting the phone away and taking out his gun. He gave the door knob a test. For all the rattling the door had done, threatening to come off its hinges, it had seemed a hell of a lot more secure.

“NCIS,” he called out as he pushed the door open and walked inside. His eyes swept the front room, seeing no one. He moved toward the kitchen, stopping when he rounded the island in the middle of the room.

“Damn it,” he muttered, shaking his head as he took out his phone to call Ducky this time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team deals with another body and a few other leads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't planned on making flashbacks as large a part of this as I did, but then... I've been liking them for a small bit of what it was like when Lee and Jake first met, during his initial recovery, and as that progressed. I think that is important backstory, but it would be a novel's worth on its own, so I'm trying to keep those pieces short, if... not entirely relevant to the moment. I did better with Redeeming the Past, probably.

* * *

_“You're missing the point.”_

_“I am not,” Jake objected, shaking his head. “And since when are you such an expert on the law? You're a pilot.”_

_“You say that like it means I don't have a brain.”_

_Jake shrugged. “I think you have to be insane to want to do that with your life, but that's not the same, not exactly.”_

_“Just mostly,” Lee agreed, tempted to laugh when he should be insulted. He was actually relieved that Jake had no interest in flying or the military. Zak had tried to convince himself that he did, but he didn't. He was only doing it to please their father, and it was slowly killing him, which was why Lee had been relieved when Zak washed out and went west.  
It had nothing to do with Kara at all._

_“I'm not wrong, though. That case was a landmark. It set all kinds of precedents. It's not about the actual law, which was flawed—”_

_“If you say the principle again, I'm going to hit you,” Jake muttered. “Why the hell are you a pilot when you know all of this, anyway?”_

_Lee shrugged. “I've always been interested in the law. Probably because of our grandfather. I used to use him as... I don't know, defiance of Dad? They were very different people, and a part of me used to wonder what it would be like if he'd been my father. I liked listening to Grandpa, hearing him talk. I ne”ver felt pressured with him. He wasn't like Dad. For all that his life was law, he never acted like it was what I had do to, what I had to be. I don't think he was like that with Dad, either.”_

_“Him I might have wanted to meet,” Jake mused. “Though I did read his book. That might count for something, I guess.”_

_“I think he would have liked you,” Lee said. “Maybe even more than he liked me.”_

_“I doubt that.”_

* * *

“Another body,” Tony said, shaking his head. Not that he wasn't glad to have an excuse to leave not only Thrace behind but also his duties as Abby's designated helper. Not that he minded hanging with Abby, that was always great, but having to piece together all of those little bits of glass? Not his thing, not by a long shot. Still, he didn't really want another body. None of them did. “Definitely our guy, right?”

Ducky nodded. “Even from here you can see damage to her side in about the same general position as the others, and I believe if we removed her shirt, we would see evidence of that same pattern. Damned if I know what it is or what it's significance might be.”

Tony shook his head. “We still haven't figured that out. McGee's search of the old bases that Thrace's mom was stationed at hadn't gotten far when Adama went missing, and she wasn't all that specific about it. All she said was that she'd seen it as a kid and moved around a lot because her mother was a marine.”

“You couldn't get more than that?” Gibbs demanded, angry.

“Seriously, Gibbs, not even your glare would have done it,” Tony told him. “Read between the lines enough, and you get an ugly picture. Sounds a lot like this woman's mother was abusive, and she refuses to even think about that time. She may not remember much of it on purpose. I know that's not what you want to hear, not when we have another witness with memory issues, but Bishop did at least get him talking.”

Gibbs looked at him. “Malloy is awake again?”

“He is in good hands, Jethro,” Ducky said. “Elanor is watching for any signs that his concussion might be worsening, and she seems to have reached some sort of... accord with him that is quite helpful. Perhaps it is because she is a woman and therefore less likely to trigger the memories that are so troublesome for him.”

“Thrace didn't seem to be helping much.”

“Thrace is a bit more like a blunt object. She is effective, but not in a way that does not leave considerable damage in its wake,” Ducky said. Tony almost laughed, but Gibbs was already glaring in his direction. “I believe she is a good person quite willing to fight for those she cares about—her refusal to be brushed aside in the matter of Adama's disappearance shows that much, though she does not employ the same investigative tools as we do.”

“Which is a polite way of saying that if she could beat her way to finding him, she would,” Tony said, shaking his head. “She's driving McGee crazy. He wanted to come, but Abby reminded him that he was the computer expert and he needed to stay to finish his searches.”

“Any luck on the license plate?”

Tony shrugged. “Didn't get any pictures or text from McGee, not yet. Couldn't tell you why.”

Gibbs grunted. He wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much they could do about it. Maybe the angle was wrong. Maybe the software wasn't capable of undoing what the killer had done to obscure the plate. Maybe the plate was stolen. Or maybe McGee had chosen to go after it himself since Thrace was being so difficult.

“Another body gives us more forensics and more insight into the killer,” Ducky reminded him. “We have more to work with.”

“Foster was supposed to give us answers.”

“Boss, even if this woman was working with our killer to keep Malloy drugged or whatever, she might not have told us anything,” Tony reminded him. Gibbs usually could persuade people, but they didn't know for sure that this would have worked with Foster. Some people just didn't break, though he supposed that she might have caved once they proved that she had put her patient in danger and so she didn't go down as an accessory to murder.

Gibbs ignored that. “Where are her files?”

“You think she really wrote down everything she did to Malloy? Incriminating herself like that?” Tony asked, frowning.

“She had to keep records on her patient,” Ducky said. “Not to do so would have looked more suspicious than the activity itself. Besides, if he was to have a reaction to the Darvonex, she would need some sort of explanation because that would come right back to her. If, as I suspect, her intention was to make it appear as though Malloy succumbed to his PTSD and took his own life, she would need to have documented his care.”

Tony frowned again. “Darvonex made that other guy crazy, though. Why wouldn't it do the same to Malloy?”

“Different people react in different ways to drugs. It depends on their physiology,” Ducky said. “It was likely a grave disappointment to her that the drug did not immediately provoke a response. Though... It might have worked in her favor. If keeping Malloy on edge and near hysterical was her goal, she definitely succeeded.”

“Do we have any idea why this guy didn't go after Malloy after he survived? Why not silence him years ago?”

“Good question, DiNozzo,” Gibbs said. “See if that file has any answers.”

* * *

_Lee watched the machines as they kept his brother alive, kept him breathing. He didn't understand how this had happened. His brother was the safe one. He was a student, one about to become a lawyer. He didn't have any enemies. He hadn't fought in any wars, didn't have a gun, and wouldn't hurt anyone. The most Lee thought Jake would ever do was defend himself, and he hated thinking it—but that hadn't gone very well._

_He shook his head. Nothing about this was right. Why had he found his brother only to lose him? A part of him would feel used, set up, if he didn't believe that Jake had been as genuinely surprised as Lee was to find himself with a twin._

_He still remembered his mother's ugly words, couldn't forget them._ Should have gotten rid of you when I got rid of the other one. Maybe if I'd kept him, I'd have someone useful around. Should have drowned the both of you.

_Lee grimaced, not wanting to think too much about any of those times. His mother had been drunk. Bad, ugly drunk. Still, somehow he thought that she wasn't talking about an identical twin._

_That hadn't become real until he'd met his brother, and he wasn't ready to lose Jake. He would never be ready for that._

* * *

“Is she still staring at me?” Tim asked in a low voice, and Abby almost laughed. Thrace hadn't stopped watching him since she came down into the lab. She wasn't likely to stop, not unless Abby or McGee could make Adama appear out of thin air. That was impossible, especially since her tests weren't getting any results and he wasn't making any progress on his searches while he was being watched.

“Yup,” Abby said. “Tell me you've got something, McGee.”

He grimaced. “Not entirely. I did manage to clear up the license plate, but as it turns out, they were stolen off a vehicle in a parking lot about an hour before Adama went missing.”

“Were you able to find any sign of who might have stolen the plates?”

He shook his head. “Not so far. The lot where the plates were taken didn't have any security cameras, and while I've been trying to connect things with the traffic cameras nearby, they haven't given me anything yet. This is so... frustrating.”

“Our killer has been getting away with murder for at least six years,” Abby reminded him. “This guy knows enough to keep himself out of jail. He's not perfect, not by any means, and he will get caught because we have his case, but he was careful. He tried to hide the pattern, he committed crimes in different states, he never left much behind in the way of forensics, he changed his style with each killing... This guy is sick, but he's also... good. At being twisted and evil and sneaky, that is. He's not actually good.”

Thrace smiled, and Abby could tell she'd amused the other woman. Then it dawned on her. “Lieutenant, did anything happen on one of those bases when you were a kid? Something memorable, something everyone talked about?”

Thrace frowned. “What? No, and even if it did, I wouldn't have paid attention to that sort of thing. It was about... getting by until we got out of there, that's all.”

Abby frowned, but McGee nodded. “I think you're onto something there, Abby. This symbol had to have some kind of significance to the killer, and it would actually make sense if there was something that happened on that base to make the whole thing more memorable for him.”

Thrace shook her head. “Don't ask me. I don't remember anything like that.”

“It could have been before you went there,” McGee said. “I can cross-reference major news events or crimes with the bases, and that might give us more. Though if the event was this guy's birth, I doubt I'd uncover that.”

Abby shook her head. “If it was something that Lieutenant Thrace—”

“Just call me Starbuck,” Thrace said, and they both looked at her. “Call sign. Less of a mouthful than the whole rank thing.”

“You a big coffee fan?”

Starbuck laughed. “That's what everyone assumes. I like that they have no idea.”

McGee frowned, but Abby just smiled. That was something she'd say. She liked keeping people guessing. She was herself defiance of a stereotype—Goths were not supposed to be happy, but she was. 

“Anything yet?” Abby asked, and McGee gave her a look. “Well, we know we can narrow the field a little—the mark was there when Starbuck was there, so we have a better idea of when to look. It had to have been left before she got there, and so that gives you more to tie in.”

“Not really,” McGee said. “We still don't know how long the mark was there before she lived on the base or how long it existed afterward. It could even be there now.”

* * *

_Lee stood at the back of the kitchen, trying not to watch his brother too closely. He knew that would unsettle Jake and push him back into some kind of panic, making him lock himself away in his room or worse, back in that damned hospital._

_He had to let Jake do this. The more Jake did on his own, the more he would realize that he could live his life. He could recover. Jake had to know he was still capable of doing all of this. Sure, it was just making coffee right now, but small things mattered. Lee was sure of that. He just had to see to it that Jake knew he could do it._

_No helping, even if he was impatient or if he started to worry. This was the first part of getting Jake's life back to him._

_“You feel like any kind of... breakfast?” Lee asked instead, deciding to push for another mundane thing just to get Jake back into the swing of things. “Eggs, maybe?”_

_“I... I don't know that I have an appetite,” Jake admitted with a grimace._

_“Again?” Lee asked. “Are you sure? You've barely eaten all week.”_

_Jake nodded. “I... it may be the medication. I...”_

_“You feel like puking?”_

_“Sometimes. Not always. Just... I have no interest in food. At all.”_

_Lee shook his head. “That's not right. We should talk to your doctor. There has to be something we can do about that. Maybe switch the medication or get you one for the nausea.”_

_Jake leaned over the counter. “I hate this.”_

* * *

“Here's some tea,” Ellie said, setting it in front of Malloy and then adding the package of the crackers next to it. “And the crackers I promised.”

He looked up at her, giving her a small smile, and she figured that was completely worth the time she'd taken to get the food and drink. He needed time to recover from the last panic attack, and she'd made sure he got it, and she thought the tea would help. She knew that was part myth, but since his issues were mental as well as physical, she thought a myth was worth it.

“Thank you,” Malloy said, picking up the tea. “I... just... thank you.”

She smiled back at him, sitting down next to him and opening a chocolate bar. She was tired, and there were better choices for this time of night, but she was allowing herself an indulgence, and she wanted to save the healthier snacks for her guest.

She let him take a few more sips, not wanting to pressure him. He had answers they needed, but he was not in a state where he could be pushed. Besides that, there was still some risk that his concussion could prove worse than they'd initially known.

“I'm afraid we still haven't found your glasses,” Ellie said. She was afraid they wouldn't, that his brother's kidnapper had taken them as as sort of perverse souvenir. “I'm not sure we could find an optometrist at the moment, but we should—”

“I'm only almost legally blind without them. I'm not... I'm fine, especially since I'm not moving,” he told her. “I... I was just... I thought... I'm sorry. It has been years... and I still can't talk about it, at least not... very well. It... I never thought I'd... It still... I don't understand why it happened. It... I didn't know him. The police said I must have, that I somehow provoked him, but his voice... I'd never heard it before. I know that.”

“I don't think you did know him—”

“Them,” Malloy insisted. “There were definitely two of them. One grabbed me, and the other... he was the one who spoke and who hit me. I... I don't know anything about the other one. I... I never saw him.”

“Them,” Ellie agreed. She glanced toward Agathon, and she finished her earlier thought. “I think that they might have known your brother.”

“Lee?” Malloy repeated, frowning. “You think this was Lee's fault? How can you say that?”

Ellie shook her head. “I am not saying that it was his fault, just that it is possible that they knew him. Or of him, at least. What we know of these deaths suggests that lookalikes or twins play some part in his selection—”

“Lee knew him,” Malloy said, starting to breathe hard again. He shook his head as he said it, starting to shake. “He didn't... I don't... It is...”

“Jake, try and calm down. This isn't Lee's fault. It's not yours. It's not even because you're twins,” Agathon told him. “Try the tea again. Or the crackers. Just breathe.”

“No... it's right... she... Lee...” Malloy took a breath, closed his eyes, and tried again. “He... He knew Lee. He called him... by name. Called him... Adama. He... he called that man... sir. I... I didn't see him, couldn't look... was already... dark... bothering me... I... heard the voice, and I couldn't... I couldn't do... anything.”

“Jake, it's okay,” Agathon said, and his friend just glared at him as he shuddered. “You've helped. You know that, don't you? You gave them something they can use to find Lee. This is good. It really is.”

Malloy bolted out of his chair, knocking it over as he backed away from them, going to the corner of the room. He curled up there, drawing his knees up against his chest and burying his head in them. He trembled, making incoherent noises.

Ellie sighed, not knowing any way to help. Not Malloy, at least. She took out her phone as Agathon went to Malloy's side. She opened the door, stepping outside of it as the call connected.

“Gibbs, it's me. We are looking for two men, not one. And one of them is definitely military, probably a naval officer, possibly one from Adama's ship. He called Adama by name, and Adama addressed him as sir.”

“Get McGee on it,” Gibbs ordered. “Malloy tell you anything else?”

“No, he... he had another panic attack as he finished telling us about the man in the parking lot.”

Gibbs hung up, and she sighed, looking back at the door. It wasn't like she thought Malloy wasn't trying or that he wouldn't tell them more if he could. She believed he honestly couldn't. She admired him for trying as hard as he was.

That deserved a lot more than crackers.

* * *

_“You have been fidgeting like crazy all morning,” Lee said, frowning at his brother. “What is wrong with you?”_

_“Is that a real question?” Jake muttered, reaching for his water and almost spilling it as he tried to lift it. He set it back down, looking at his hand as it shook. He sighed. “Damn it.”_

_“New medication?” Lee asked with a grimace._

_Jake nodded. “This one is supposed to be better for the anxiety, but I'm not... It doesn't feel any better. The doctor says to give it time, but I don't want to. It's... I know I say this all the time, but I just want it to stop.”_

_“I know.” Lee understood now why Jake had been so reluctant to go out to breakfast, which normally wasn't that hard a sell. It was easier to convince him to do than dinner, at least. “What about trying it without the medication?”_

_Jake pulled his shirt sleeve down over his hand. “Not a good idea. Look, it's just... the adjustment period. This happens with all antidepressants, or so I'm told. I just... I'm sorry. I'm ruining your leave again.”_

_Lee snorted. “Are you kidding? This beats spending time with Kara and her guy of the week any day.”_

_“What about Helo?”_

_“He's visiting his family this time around. Which is fine, because I am with mine,” Lee said. “Zak actually told me to fly out to see him while I was in port. The guy is crazy. I know he has a life there, and a family, too, but when I'm only on liberty for a few days, it's hard to spend hours of those days on a plane just to see him for a few hours because he won't take off work for me.”_

_“Admit it—you just don't like your sister-in-law.”_

_Lee shrugged. “Could be worse. It almost was Kara.”_

* * *

“Why are you doing this?” Lee asked, watching as the knife turned in the other man's hands. Damn, the bastard was actually sharpening it. The whole thing was about scaring him, and he shouldn't let them win by giving into the fear, but a part of him already had. He knew what these bastards had done to Jake. He'd seen the scars. He knew the damage they'd done. He'd been there for his brother's recovery. That was long and painful, and it shouldn't even have been possible.

That was what was ahead of him, and Lee was terrified.

He was also pissed off, and he was trying to channel Kara and use that, but he wasn't going to be pulling his hands free any time soon, and he wasn't going to be able to stop much if he got drugged again. He just had to hope NCIS had something.

And that these bastards were wrong, that Jake wasn't dead.

“Don't you know that already, Adama?”

“No, sir,” Lee said, adding plenty of scorn to the title, “I don't.”

“Oh, well, you will,” he said, stabbing the blade deep into Lee's leg. He tried not to scream, and the other man just smiled at him. “We're only getting started.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake's information narrows down the suspect pool as the others learn something about the doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had one of those moments where I intended to do more but wrote what felt like a good/strong chapter end and had to stop there. So I will have to get into the more I had planned in the next part. 
> 
> That is how it goes, I guess.

* * *

_“This is starting to look a lot like goodbye,” Lee observed, shaking his head at his bags and the open door. The only difference from before was that he didn't have a cab waiting. Jake was actually going to drive him over to the docks._

_Jake snorted. “Look, Lee, now that we know the other exists, we don't have to pretend we don't. Quit acting like we're never going to see each other again. Are you always this overdramatic?”_

_Lee grimaced. He supposed this seemed ridiculous. Still, he knew going back to his ship was going to change things. He'd be back with his usual reality. He would have to make up his mind what he was going to do. Did he tell anyone about Jake?_

_That made Jake sound like a dirty secret, but he wasn't. Lee wasn't ashamed of his brother. He hated his mother. That was nothing new. Still, he kind of liked having his twin to himself, at least for now. He wanted to learn more about his brother. That was not wrong._

_“What's wrong?”_

_Lee shook his head. “Nothing. Just... always a bit of an adjustment going back.”_

_“I can't see why you'd ever want to do it in the first place—”_

_“Just for that, I am signing you up for the next tiger cruise.”_

* * *

Kara didn't like having to wait on computers. She wanted answers, wanted someone to punch. This could not really be the way they were going to find Lee. These people were sitting around touching keyboards instead of actually doing anything, and it was starting to piss her off. Okay, sure, they'd found a license plate, but the guy even said it hadn't done them any good because it was stolen. This wasn't enough, didn't cut it. They needed to do something before Lee ended up dead.

Lee was not allowed to die. She refused to let that happen.

“Don't you have anything yet?” Kara demanded as she got close to McGee's computer. “What good is that frakking thing if it can't tell you where Lee is?”

“Look, we're working on it. I still can't find that design you described, and I'm starting to think that our killer might have gone back to destroy it after he started killing. I don't know for sure, but that would be my guess,” McGee said. He shook his head. “All we know so far is that he was once at this base. Maybe. It doesn't give us much to work with.”

“I may be able to help with that,” the female agent said, coming into the room. “Hi, Abby.”

“Bishop,” the Goth said, smiling. “How's it going up there?”

“So far, pretty rough,” Bishop said with a grimace. She shook her head. “I figured I'd give them a little space and came down here to talk to you in person.”

“You got something?” McGee asked. “Did this come from Gibbs? I have been avoiding calling him because the license plate went nowhere. After I finished the enhancement, I found out the plates were stolen. I still have a make and model for the SUV they used, but there are thousands of them in the DC area, so it doesn't tell us much.”

“And I am still waiting for test results while trying to piece together this broken window,” Abby said. “Tony was helping me, but he took off as soon as he heard about the new body.”

Kara frowned. “Lee's dead, and you didn't tell anyone?”

“Um, no,” Bishop said. “At least, as far as we know, he's alive. We are still operating on that basis. Jake's doctor was found dead. It looks like they killed her before coming after Adama.”

Kara frowned. “What does his doctor have to do with this?”

“It's a long story,” Bishop said. She looked at McGee, who shrugged. “We should probably put Lieutenant Thrace in—”

“Don't say it,” Kara warned. “I'm cooperating as long as I can see you people are actually working on finding Lee. If you stop or try and—”

“She can stay here,” McGee said with resignation. “Go ahead and tell us what you found out. Maybe that can help narrow down our search.”

“I think it can, by a lot,” Bishop said. She gave Kara another doubtful look before explaining, “In the first place, everyone's been overlooking something Jake told everyone from beginning—there were two men there when he was abducted. We are looking for a team of killers, not just one.”

Kara frowned. The frak? Not one, but two of these frakkers? How the hell did Lee stand a chance against them?

“That could explain those inconsistencies that Ducky was bothered by,” McGee said. “The need to make the mark but the attempts to obscure it—one of them has the compulsion about the mark. The other one has the clarity to try and hide it so that they don't get caught.”

Bishop nodded. “That was my thought after Jake insisted there were two of them. It's such a key factor I don't see how anyone could ignore that. He was definitely clear about it, and I am sure he was in his early interviews, too. Then again, it doesn't sound like the original investigators were... they seemed caught on the idea that he knew his attackers and never budged from that.”

“Did he say he knew them?” Kara asked. Bishop shook her head. “Then why would they think that? Why jump to that conclusion?”

“Statistically speaking,” Bishop began, “most murders are committed by people the victim knows. The idea of a random killer, a serial—that's an outlier. Even with serial killers, the first victims are usually ones that law enforcement focus on because they tend to be known by the killer. That's not always true, but it has been enough to shape the course of investigations. With Jake as the first victim—one who survived—we have a unique situation.”

“So he should know who did it.”

“Except he didn't see his attackers the night he was taken and has almost no memory of the time in between then and waking up in the hospital,” Bishop said. “He did hear a voice, and that voice was the same one he heard tonight when his brother was taken.”

“Damn,” Kara said. “He's sure of that?”

“Mostly. He's traumatized enough that he doesn't trust his memory.”

McGee frowned. “That doesn't actually help that much. I mean, we could get him to identify the guy if we had anything for him to compare it to, but we don't.”

“We might,” Bishop disagreed. “Jake was also able to tell us that the man who approached them addressed Adama by name and that Adama called him sir.”

Kara choked. “This frakker is one of ours? He's an officer, a frakking superior asshole?”

“What?”

She shook her head. “Superior officer. I call them superior assholes to make Lee laugh. Are we sure about that?”

“Yes.” Bishop turned to McGee. “We're looking for someone with a connection to Adama. Someone he served with or serves with now. Possibly someone he knows through his father, but that seems less likely.”

“Yeah, but if you put that together with people who were at the bases where Starbuck's mom was stationed as well as who might own that particular SUV, we're talking about a whole lot less people. Maybe even only one name.”

“Even narrowing it down to someone on the ship would give us somewhere to start with finding voice samples for Malloy to identify,” McGee agreed. “We just need—”

“The captain, the CAG, the engineer, and the XO,” Kara said. When the others looked at her, she shrugged. “There aren't that many people that outrank Lee as a Lieutenant Commander. Our chaplain and chief medical officer share his rank, and he wouldn't have called either of them sir. Now, Cottle, the doctor on his father's ship, he gets a sir, but not ours. And with the way Lee feels about religion, he would have a hard time calling any chaplain sir. If this frakker serves on our ship, those are the ones you need. The others either don't outrank him or aren't men.”

“It is possible that the second person could be a woman,” Bishop said, frowning. “Jake never saw them, so he couldn't be sure, and a naval officer would be strong enough to incapacitate him.”

“Still, we're a whole lot closer than we were before,” Abby said. She bit her lip. “Do you think he'll be okay to listen to any voice samples we can find?”

Bishop sighed. “I don't know.”

* * *

_“I hear they're close to letting you out of here,” Lee said, and Jake gave him a look, not even much of one, before turning his eyes back to the window. Lee didn't understand why none of his family ever seemed to be here. He'd managed to get a couple pieces of leave put together, and his captain had been generous, but he couldn't be here as often as he liked or needed to be, not when his brother was in this bad of shape._

_He wasn't sure why the hospital was letting him go, but they said most of the physical damage was healed, so Jake should go._

_None of them cared that Jake didn't have a place on campus anymore with the semester change, or that he still needed help to move around after two broken feet. Or the mood thing. Lee hadn't seen anyone this depressed in a long time._

_“Jake, I was thinking that maybe I could get transferred to a ship that docks nearby and when I do, maybe we could share a place and—”_

_“They bought me a house. They say I can recover there.”_

_“Have you seen them?”_

_“And a nurse. They got me a nurse.”_

_“Jake—”_

_“You don't have to be here, Lee. My family has it covered. They gave money to the right people, as usual.”_

* * *

“Think you're going to need to take a look at this, Ducky,” Anthony said, coming over to where the body was and waiting. Ducky sighed. He had just finished with all he needed before he sent Ms. Foster's remains to the morgue, but that did not mean that he wanted to see that file. There was a part of him that was curious about the reasoning she might have used to explain her behavior, but he doubted it would be so clear in her notes.

Anthony was right. She would not have said outright that she had accepted money or some other bribe to harm that young man. Still, she must have had her reasons.

“What seems to be the difficulty here?” Ducky asked and then opened the file. “Goodness. I hope she kept computerized records as well. Her handwriting is worse than most doctor clichés.”

“I'll bring that to McGee or someone in cyber,” Anthony said, looking at the computer. He shook his head. “I wasn't able to get in. Whatever her password is, there's no hint of it around here, so we'll need someone else to break in. Meantime, what does that file say?”

“Though I suppose one should not speculate too far, I have to wonder if perhaps Ms. Foster did not have a drug problem of her own,” Ducky began, eying the handwriting as he did. “It is difficult to read most of this.”

“And Gibbs thought I was just being lazy,” Anthony said, getting a grunt out of Jethro. “I'm not. It's illegible, right? You sure it's not just bad writing and really about drugs?”

“I admit to possible bias,” Ducky said. He looked back at the body that Palmer was preparing to transport. “I was also able to examine her body. While I believe she was attempting to conceal her habit, she definitely had one. Note, please, her right foot. If you were to separate her toes, you would see a small mark in-between the first two.”

“Ah. Our doctor was hiding her habit by shooting up where no one could see it,” Anthony said. “Almost smart.”

“Still stupid,” Jethro said, which no one could argue with. This woman had what appeared to be intelligent, had a successful practice, and a good home. She had thrown all of that away on drugs, even to the point of endangering someone who had trusted her to help him.

“Agreed,” Ducky said. “It looks like we have our reason for her involvement. She may have been an easy target if the killer was able to learn of her habit and then blackmail her for it. She would have lost her license the very least.”

“So we have an easily manipulated doctor,” Anthony said, looking at the body. “Wonder what got her hooked in the first place.”

“We may never know,” Ducky said. He might be able to provide an answer later, though he doubted he'd have much time to dig deeper into Foster's past and what might have brought her to this tragic point. What they knew might have to suffice—she had developed a drug habit and it was used to coerce her into betraying her patients' trust in the worst of ways.

“We have two killers out there and a missing pilot,” Jethro said. “Let's move.”

* * *

_“They said they put you on a suicide watch.”_

_“You say that like it somehow surprises you,” Jake said, not looking at him. Lee felt sick, but he swallowed down his gag reflex. He knew that his brother was right, that it shouldn't be any kind of surprise, not after what those bastards had done to him, but that didn't make it any easier to hear._

_“It's not really what you want, is it?” Lee asked, coming closer to him. “I know you're hurting, that you're having bad dreams and panic attacks, but this isn't... It doesn't have to be over, to be the end, not like this.”_

_“Have you seen where I am?” Jake asked. “Just... go away.”_

_Lee shook his head. “No. I told you before I wouldn't. This isn't over. You're a stronger person than this. We both know this. You may hate feeling like this, but it's going to get better. Mom never thought it would, but even she did rehab. Twice.”_

_Jake shook his head. “I'm not drunk. I'm... I'm not even sure what I am.”_

_“You have post-traumatic stress,” Lee said. “It's real, and it happens, and you have it.”_

* * *

“Hey.”

Jake looked up at him, and Karl tried to smile. He knew that they had to get Jake back to himself—or at least stable again. He was not the right person for this, but that did not mean that he wouldn't try. He had to, something he owed Lee from way back and besides, he didn't want to see a good man suffering.

“You want to try her crackers?” Karl asked, getting a snort from him. “Come on, it was worth a shot. At least a little one.”

“Not... really,” Jake said, struggling to get his voice and breathing under control. “I... I think I can... get up... now.”

“You don't have to push yourself,” Karl said. He knew that wasn't going to convince the other man. Jake was too much like his brother in that respect. Lee never knew when to quit, and that seemed to run in the blood. “You know you've already done plenty.”

Jake shook his head. “No, I haven't. I... I didn't do anything. I didn't... It was nothing.”

Karl didn't believe that. “You did. If you hadn't, she wouldn't still be gone. She has no problem sitting with you when you're mid-panic—which, by the way, is a good sign for the two of you—and yet she's not back. I think that means she's working on something.”

Jake took hold of the wall, pushing himself up from the floor. He leaned against the wall, closing his eyes as he took several deep breaths. Karl grimaced, not sure what else he could do here. Jake was trying. This was impressive as hell in his book, since Karl figured that after the first panic attack he would have been done. He would have taken a sedative and stayed in bed rather than trying to find his brother and save him from himself. Well, maybe not that first one, or even the second one that Kara gave him, but then there was the third one, the one in front of everyone. That would have been it. Karl would have gone home. Or at least to the hospital after Lee went missing, no matter how much he disliked them.

“You ready to move? There's a nice seat over here,” Karl said, and Jake nodded, holding out a hand in front of him, seeking something to guide him. “You want me to take your arm?”

“No. No, don't... Just don't touch me,” Jake said. Karl frowned at him, hating the idea of watching him hurt himself as he stumbled over toward the conference table. “It... It's better if I... am not touched when I'm like this. Though... sometimes it isn't. I just... right now, I know I don't want it.”

Karl nodded. “We'll go with that. Watch it—you're about to hit the table.”

Jake stopped. His hand caught the chair, and he fumbled his way into the seat. “Thank you.”

“It's nothing,” Karl said because it wasn't. Jake looked at him, and Karl had to wonder just how much he saw. Still, he wasn't kidding. He wasn't doing anything special. He would gladly help Jake or anyone else. “You think you'll be up to more questions when she gets back?”

“I don't know.”

“You know there's not that many people on our ship that Lee would call sir, right?” Karl asked. Jake frowned. “You could have told them exactly what they needed to know.”

“What if I'm wrong?” Jake asked. “What... what if... I don't know what's real... and what isn't. All I can trust... is the memory right before he hits me... And... the one where he cuts me.”

“You don't have to tell me,” Karl said, taking the seat next to him. “You can wait for them to come back to ask more questions. Don't force things, not now.”

Jake closed his eyes, leaning back in the chair. “I don't know that I can do this.”

“You can. You've done a lot so far,” Karl said, though he wanted to will an agent to come back through the door so that they wouldn't lose him again. It was either panic or self-doubt, and self-doubt was getting him right now. “We're going to get Lee back.”

“No. We won't.”

“Jake—”

“Because even if he lives, he'll be like me, and he's not back at all if he's like me.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And a suspect, finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It wasn't supposed to take this long to get to this point. Things just... happened.

* * *

_“You don't have to walk me to the ship.”_

_Jake snorted. “Like I would. You are on your own with that. I am not military, would never be military, and I don't care what my lineage says—that's not me.”_

_“Lineage?” Lee asked, almost falling over with his laughter, unable to open the door as he'd been about to do._

_Jake grimaced. “It's a thing.”_

_“I know it's a thing. It's just not what I'd think of when—”_

_“'Impressive military lineage' keeps coming to mind. Genetics if you want to use that term. I don't know. It's weird. Still. Being adopted. Finding out about my biological family. Having two sets of parents and two families.”_

_Lee nodded, though he still found his brother's reaction hilarious. “Damn, I'm really going to miss you.”_

_“Me, too,” Jake admitted. “Though... I can't miss you if you're not gone.”_

* * *

“Where are we at?” Gibbs asked, stopping Ellie at her desk. She winced, not having expected to be caught during a brief pit stop. She wanted something to eat, and she was hoping that would take the sting out of what she was about to ask of Jake.

“Between what Jake gave us and what we already had—the base where Starbuck was stationed and probably saw the mark—we have three suspects. There are more if we exclude the past and don't assume that it was someone from his current ship, but we figure there's a good chance that this person _does_ serve with him. That's just gut feeling. No proof. Not yet.”

“Not yet?” Gibbs repeated. He did not sound pleased.

“We just finished finding suitable audio samples for Jake to listen to,” Ellie answered, not sure she wanted to admit that. She knew it was their best chance of finding Adama, but forcing Jake to hear that voice again would be awful, and he'd already been through a lot in the last day.

“Jake, huh?” Tony asked. “Since when is he Jake to you and not Malloy? And Starbuck?”

She shrugged. “It's shorter than Lieutenant Thrace. And... I don't actually know about the Jake thing. That just... happened.”

Tony grinned at her, and she rolled her eyes. She figured lines were bound to be crossed in situations like this, and it wasn't wrong to call Jake by his first name instead of his last, especially when it seemed to help calm him down, at least when Agathon or his brother used it.

“What are you waiting for?” Gibbs asked. “Get him to listen to the samples.”

“Gibbs—”

“You think he needs time,” Gibbs said. “You may be right. Don't know that his brother has that kind of time.”

Ellie winced. Gibbs was probably right about that. She just didn't want to save one brother at the cost of the other. Jake shouldn't have to do this. He was concussed and tired. She didn't know how many panic attacks a person could have in a day, but he'd had more than he should have already.

“Bishop, it won't hurt to ask,” Tony told her, but she wasn't so sure that was true. He hadn't seen how difficult it was for Jake to go over even a small part of what had happened to him.

“We're asking,” Gibbs said. “You have the samples or did you want him to go somewhere else?”

“It's probably better if we take them to him, but I don't have them on me. I was going to see if he had recovered enough from the lat time we talked. Telling me about the parking lot... It pushed him over the edge again.” Ellie shook her head. “If you want to go collect them from Abby and McGee, you can. I'll just make sure Jake's still awake and willing to listen. Though I think Ducky would tell you that we might be risking the case if he is too tired or stressed to properly identify the voice.”

“Ducky would?”

“Jake is his patient,” Ellie reminded them, “and he did get a concussion earlier. We may have to face having his identification of the voice would be thrown out later.”

“If we have his brother, we won't need it,” Gibbs reminded her, and she nodded. She hoped he was right about that, but they couldn't guarantee that they'd find Adama or that he'd be alive when they did. No one could.

She made her way back to the conference room. She didn't knock, though she hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not she would. She took a breath, letting it out as she pushed the door open. No one jumped as she did, though Agathon surprised her by seeming glad she was there.

“Hey.”

“Agent Bishop,” Agathon began. “Do you have any word on Lee or...?”

“We have some samples we want you to listen to if you think you're up to it. I know it's late and you are—”

“I can. For Lee, I can,” Jake said, though he shook even as he said it. “Um... I may need to do this... quickly, before I lose... Just... quickly.”

Ellie nodded. “They're already on their way with them. I just... I wanted to ask if you were okay with listening to them.”

“For now,” Jake said, and she gave him a reassuring smile.

* * *

_A psych ward had to be the most depressing place in the world, Lee thought. Others would say a cemetery, but the thing was, dead was dead. Those people were gone. They weren't ever coming back. They were in the ground, rotting, even._

_People in psych wards were gone, but they were still alive. They were just... missing. Missing in their souls, missing in spirit or mind though the body was right there._

_That was what he was looking at right here, with his own brother. Jake might have been sitting across the room from him, but he wasn't there at the same time. He was so doped up that he didn't even know Lee was there._

_“Jake?” Lee asked, going closer to his side. “Jake, it's Lee.”_

_His brother didn't even look at him._

* * *

“You ready for this?”

“The more people ask me that, the more likely it is that I won't be,” Malloy said, and Tony had to smile at that. He didn't think it was funny, not really, but he thought it was accurate. He figured Malloy was right on that knife's edge again. They weren't going to keep him calm for very long. He was going to panic again any minute now.

“All right,” Tony said. “Just relax, take a listen. If anything seems familiar, let us know.”

Malloy nodded, and Tony went to hit play on the first sample. Bishop put a hand out to stop him. “You should know that we didn't get the same words from everyone, and I should have asked your for specific ones that your abductor said, but I didn't—”

“I... I don't think... it matters,” Malloy said. “I... If I can... If I hear it... I should know it.”

Tony hoped he could. They needed his identification to find his brother. Tony started up the file. He waited, watching Malloy's face as it played, knowing he wasn't the only one who was.

_“I am coming home in a week's time. I love the sea, but it doesn't compare to being home with you. This place we're at is nice, has the best accommodations in the world, though it's not like the navy will pay for them. I can't help but wonder if we're—”_

“No,” Malloy said. He swallowed, grabbing hold of the table. “Not that one. That's not him.”

“Okay, another one, then,” Tony said, skipping ahead. The next file started, and he wondered where they'd pulled these snippets from anyway. He'd have to ask McGee later.

_“We came to our camp around midnight. Not much of a view. Still, if you were to say anything, if you called out, it would echo for miles and miles against the nothingness—”_

“Not him,” Malloy said. He wrapped his arms around himself, shaking, and Agathon winced.

“Jake, if you need to stop—”

“No, not... not yet. I can do another,” Malloy insisted. Agathon grimaced, touching his back, and he jumped. “Please don't do that again.”

“Sorry. I was just trying to help.”

“Maybe a blanket?” Bishop suggested, and Malloy looked over at her. “I'm sorry. You were shaking. It seemed almost like a good idea.”

“It... Sometimes it helps,” he agreed. He looked down at his hands, and Tony sighed, knowing they'd have to wait until someone got him a blanket, which was going to take a while because those weren't exactly standard NCIS gear. “I... I don't think I need one now. Go ahead. Play the next sample.”

_“I don't think I've ever seen a man that drunk before, and I serve on a damn aircraft carrier. The whole thing was almost funny. Only almost, though. I can't say that I found it half that amusing. Mostly it's just annoying. Never sit with a bookworm when he's drunk. He starts going off on the most ridiculous things. Stupid crap. He just can't help himself.”_

Tony went to move onto the next sample. Damn. They were running out of samples, and it didn't look like they were going to find what they needed.

“Wait,” Malloy choked out. “Play that one... again.”

“You sure?”

He buried his head in his hands, shaking it. “I don't... I don't want to hear it again. I don't... It's him. It's him... I... He... That voice... Telling me to call for help and laughing because no one was going to come...”

“Jake,” Agathon said, “just breathe, okay? Take it easy. You're safe now. He can't get you here. And if that's him, if that's who took Lee, now we know who he is, and we can find him and get Lee back. This is good. We have what we need.”

Malloy didn't look at him. He slid out of his chair and onto the floor, hiding under the table and whimpering. Tony grimaced, and Bishop nudged him.

“We have our answer. Go find out from McGee which one number three was and tell Gibbs because he's going to want to go there now.”

Tony gave her a look. Like he wouldn't do that anyway. Of course he would. He knew what to do. Why was she giving him orders? Sure, he was a little distracted by Malloy's behavior, but who wouldn't be? “What about you?”

“I'll meet you there,” she said. “I'm going to find him a blanket first.”

* * *

_Lee stopped in his brother's doorway, watching Jake toss and turn with a frown. He wouldn't be surprised if Jake woke with a nightmare—again—but that would be the third in one night. Just like last night and the night before._

_It was easy to see why Jake thought being locked up was easier. They kept him drugged, and he didn't have to worry about how he was going to sleep, about the nightmares. He could just be numb all the time._

_Lee wasn't sure what he'd do if this was him. He still didn't understand how this had happened. What had they done to his brother? And why?_

* * *

“Hey,” Karl said, crawling under the table with Jake. “How are you feeling?”

“Completely and utterly humiliated,” Jake answered, curling up against himself as his whole body continued to shake. “Look... at me... I am... under a table.”

“Yeah,” Karl agreed. That was undeniable. They were both under this thing, and he didn't think that Jake was going anywhere anytime soon. “What is it about places like this, anyway? You seem to have this... need to go find somewhere small or make yourself small. You go for confined places like the bathroom. Or your car. Your office.”

“I... I don't like being out in the open,” Jake admitted. “It... I don't know. It... it feels safer somehow. I don't know why.”

Karl grimaced. “Sorry. I shouldn't have asked. I just got curious.”

“Everyone does.”

“Yeah, but that doesn't make asking about it right. It's like you said—you feel humiliated, and that's not right. I'm making it worse when I'm supposed to be here to help.”

“I'm not your burden. I shouldn't even be Lee's.”

Karl shook his head. “It's not about you being a burden, and believe me, Lee does not see you that way. He never has.”

“Lee is screwed up,” Jake muttered. “He... He got warped by years of taking care of her. He doesn't know how to do anything else. He just... cared for her. For Zak. It's all he knows.”

“No, it's not,” Karl told him. This wasn't just about Lee's messed up past with his mother or being forced to raise his brother because his parents were never really there. “It's about a lot more than that, though I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a part of it.”

Jake shuddered, and Karl frowned. He had seemed calm there for a bit, almost back to himself, but Karl thought he was getting worse again. He didn't understand. “Jake?”

“I heard... him,” Jake whispered. “When... that sample... I... I heard him again... He told me... if I was... so smart... I would... prove it. And... for each one... I got wrong... he would break... a bone.”

Karl gagged. He didn't know how to react to that, but he did remember seeing Jake in the hospital. He knew the wounds that they'd said Jake had—including broken bones in both his feet.

“I... never had that before... not in all the nightmares I wasn't sure about... I never knew... never had an explanation... but... that... it could be...”

Karl wanted to help him, but he couldn't think of anything. Jake didn't want to be touched, a joke felt so incredibly wrong, and Karl's bag of tricks was pretty small. “You know you're safe here, right? You're inside a secure facility, and no one is going to get through to you.”

Jake trembled, and Karl knew that wasn't the right thing to say. They had gotten Lee in a secure lot, so that didn't help.

“I'm sorry it took so long to get this,” Bishop said as she came into the room. “I thought we had a lot more of these, but it took forever to track one down and...”

“It's fine,” Karl told her, even if it really wasn't. None of this was, but maybe that blanket would do something, even a little thing, or maybe she could. He didn't know. Bishop had been able to hold Jake earlier, and maybe that would be enough now. 

She came close, joining them under the table. She gave Jake a smile as she held out the blanket. He didn't take it, but he didn't jerk away from her, either. She must have taken that as encouragement, and she leaned over to put the blanket over him.

“This reminds me of when I was a kid,” she told him. “Making blanket forts with my brothers. Or sometimes to exclude them.”

Jake pulled the blanket tight around him. “I never did that. Not once.”

“Never?” Bishop asked, frowning.

“Our table... two hundred years old... not a toy...” Jake muttered, shaking his head. “Not... sure why we... ate on it.”

Bishop frowned. Karl tried not to whistle. Damn, that table must have been expensive. Not that he didn't know that Jake's family had money, but still. That was—Karl couldn't decide if it was weird or impressive.

“I used to make them sometimes at night, stay up late and read,” she said. “Those were in my room, though, not under the table.”

“Lee told me about it... About sitting with Zak... and reading... Only thing in his childhood... worth envying,” Jake said. “He... he read to me. In the hospital. Only when he thought... I couldn't hear him. When I was... sleeping... or catatonic. He blamed it on the book once... Bad poetry. He didn't have any others. Kara gave that one to him.”

“They seem pretty close.”

“They are,” Karl agreed. He had a really crazy thought then. “Hey... I don't suppose we could find a book, could we?”

* * *

_“How is work?” Lee asked, grimacing at the stupidity of the question. He knew it was dumb, but he also knew he wasn't going to be asking Jake if he felt like he was coping on his own or if he'd tried to kill himself lately._

_“I hate it,” Jake answered. “I knew I would, but... I can't... I don't think I could hold down a job if my parents didn't own the company. I'm lucky my office is on its own floor and the secretary is some kind of lifer.”_

_“Your parents would have found someone loyal to the company,” Lee agreed, not wanting to say what that actually meant—someone who wouldn't tell the world what a mess Jake was because she'd been bought and paid for years ago._

_“I'm... I'm managing, Lee,” Jake said. “That's what you want to know, isn't it? I'm not dead. I'm not better, but I'm... I'm here. On the phone. With you.”_

_Lee nodded. It was something, but he knew he wouldn't feel at ease until he saw his brother again and knew his condition for himself._

* * *

“Wow,” Tim said, shaking his head in disbelief as Starbuck was forcibly escorted out of the lab. “She was pissed.”

“Don't care,” Gibbs said. He sounded cold, but he wasn't entirely wrong. Starbuck was not an agent, and as close to Adama as she was, she would want to go after his kidnapper herself, even if that kidnapper was one half of a sadistic serial killer pair. They couldn't let her know who it was that Malloy had identified. “Which one of them was it?”

“The lucky winner was number three,” Tony answered. He looked over at Abby. “Which one was number three?”

“We sure about this?” Tim asked, frowning. He would have been more shocked if it had turned out to be the captain, but he was still struggling with the idea that number three was their killer. And if he was, who was the other one?

“Depends on how much you trust our very traumatized witness,” Tony answered, and Tim grimaced. That was an unpleasant question, not one that he wanted to answer. On the one hand, they wanted to trust that Malloy was giving them the best information he could, but on the other, it was all too possible that he could be wrong. Even witnesses without the kind of trauma Malloy had were proved wrong.

“Lead's solid,” Gibbs said. “Where the hell is he?”

Abby pulled the image up on the screen. “We ran a check on all of our possible suspects to see where they might be right now. Number three does not own any property locally. He also doesn't have a car. His credit cards show no activity, and his phone is currently sitting on his ship according to the GPS in it.”

“He was already planning Valerii's murder before he left the ship,” Gibbs said, sounding angry. “What else do we know about him?”

“Commander Aaron Kelly,” Abby read off. “He actually served on another ship with Lieutenant Commander Adama—let's just call him Apollo for the sake of this exercise—before, as well as being stationed out of the same base as Starbuck's mom—only this gets better because he was there as a child, just like she was. He is, as Apollo is, second generation navy.”

“Anything useful?” Gibbs prompted, annoyed. “We need a way to find him.”

“I'm getting to that,” Abby said, smiling. Tim frowned. Why did it seem like she was winding up toward a dramatic reveal? What had she found? He had been the one to look into the ship's captain, so he hadn't found anything, but that didn't mean that she hadn't. “I know who our second killer is, and when I tell you this—it's going to blow your mind.”

“Abby—”

“Aaron has a younger brother,” Abby said, triumph in her voice, pulling a picture up on the screen. “Tim.”

“What?” McGee asked, still staring at the screen. She had to have made a mistake, right? Those two also looked a lot like twins.

“Not you Tim. Commander Kelly's brother Tim.”

“Another set of twins?” Tony asked, frowning. “Are you kidding me?”

“No.”

“In a weird way it fits,” Tim said, still unable to take his eyes off the screen. “Each of our victims was part of a pair that could have passed for twins—with one exception, Tory Foster. Unless...”

“Look into that later,” Gibbs ordered. “What do we know about this brother?” 

“Quite a bit. In the first place, they are not twins, just brothers with a very strong resemblance. There's actually a few years between the two of them. We'll call the commander Aaron and his brother Kelly. Anyway, Kelly is, of all things, a lawyer,” Abby said. “Not just that—he was at law school with none other than Jake Malloy. They were even what you could call rivals. Kelly was first in his class without any real competition besides Malloy. He was second, a very close second.”

“Is that enough for motive?” Tony asked. “This guy was feeling threatened, so he and his brother tortured Malloy and left him for dead?”

“We don't know that he was involved even if Malloy identified Commander Kelly's voice,” Tim said, though it was more than possible that it was a set of brothers doing this. “Was Kelly ever investigated in Malloy's attack?”

“Supposedly he was hosting a very large, very wild party all weekend long,” Abby answered. “At the same house that he still owns today.”

Tim frowned. The same house. He still had it. What did that mean? 

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Abby asked, gesturing to the screen, this time filled with an address in big, bold letters. “Go.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee faces off with his kidnappers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to work in some explanations here. It wasn't easy, but I hope the motive is a little bit clearer and not just... random.
> 
> Also... if you want to know my reasoning behind the choice of killer, read the end note.

* * *

_“You could always go in, see how far you got as me.”_

_Jake laughed, and Lee smiled. Eventually, they'd have to. He didn't know if all twins pulled that kind of prank, but he knew he was going to have to do it to someone. Kara, preferably. He'd love to screw with her head like that. Best part was that Jake wouldn't even have to try. If he just showed up somewhere she was and didn't recognize her, it would drive her crazy._

_“We are going to have to switch places sometime. Just... for fun.”_

_Jake nodded. “Tell you what—you can come and attend one of my law classes. I want to see how you'd do on a pop quiz. And then I'd get a break from Kelly.”_

_“Kelly?”_

_“He's like this... myth. An obnoxious one. He's at the top of our class, always thinks he has the right answer, belittles everyone else in the class, total smug jerk. He's actually smart, and somehow people like him. He's popular. A frat boy. Parties all the time yet somehow has the best grade in every one of our classes.”_

_“I thought you said you were ahead in one of your classes.”_

_“One of them.”_

_“So he hates you.”_

_Jake nodded. “Yes. Which is why if we ever did switch places, you'd have to mess with him.”_

_“Consider it done,” Lee told him with a grin._

* * *

“In some ways, it's a shame your brother never remembered any of this,” Kelly said as he leaned over Lee with the knife. He cut across Lee's arm, nothing deep, almost a paper cut, but longer and a bit deeper. “He was so much fun when we had him.”

Lee glared at him. “You're sick.”

Kelly didn't even seem to hear him. “It was hard to believe at first, the odds of it. Here I had this thorn in my side, pain in the ass hotshot pilot who had the call sign of a damned god and figured he was one because he was even better in the air than his legend of a father. And Tim had this upstart in his classes, some trust fund baby that figured he could be a lawyer just because his family had money and always argued the technicalities of the law like he knew better than anyone.”

Lee frowned. He was missing something. Who the hell was Tim? And was Kelly actually talking about Jake? It almost sounded like it but it couldn't be because Jake didn't flaunt his family's money. Even now, he didn't seem like someone who led a multimillion dollar international company. He had nice clothes, a better car, and lived in an expensive part of DC, but he wasn't entitled.

He was generous. Always had been.

“I was so drunk that day I thought it was the alcohol talking,” Kelly went on. “Tim just wouldn't stop going on and on about the last debate he lost in his ethics class. He was so riled up about this Malloy kid. He even showed me a video of the guy showing him up—damn thing had made it on the internet. And I'm watching and who does this prick look like but the same cocky pilot that's making my life miserable?”

Lee choked. He'd almost forgotten that it was Kelly who mentioned seeing someone who looked like him on that campus. He never would have found Jake if not for that, but it was all a set up, wasn't it?

“You... planned it.”

“To take your brother?” Kelly grinned. “Yeah. Spent weeks perfecting it while I was at sea. Couldn't do anything to you. No, that would have tied right back to me, but Tim had a great set up. After Dad died his hero's death and Mom remarried, she just left him in out old house, which was close to campus and great for parties. We could get Malloy there easily, and once we did... we had a whole weekend to do whatever we wanted to him.”

Lee yanked on the ropes, angry. If he got free of this, he'd make them both pay, he swore it. “I'll kill you for this.”

Kelly snorted. “You wouldn't even know you had a brother if not for me. I almost didn't tell you, but it was worth him surviving to watch you afterward. The worry, the fear... You were almost as much of a wreck as he was. Tim enjoyed seeing that. He loved just how much we broke him.”

“I am going to break you,” Lee said, and Kelly just laughed.

“Like you're going to be able to do anything to me. You're tied up. I have the weapons, the drugs, and the advantage. Not that you can't try. Your brother did. He fought like hell to get free and he called for help. Too bad the room is soundproof and there was an out of control party going on right outside the door. You know the police were actually called twice that weekend?”

Lee twisted, getting his leg free and kicking Kelly in the side. The other man coughed, stumbling back from the bed.

“You'll regret that.”

“Trust me, you're going to regret everything you did to me _and_ to Jake,” Lee told him. He was going to get free, and he was going to hurt him. Both of them.

“I told you before, we're only getting started,” Kelly said. “Or did you really think that it ended for your brother when we dumped his body? No, he's never been free. You're going to be begging for death long before I give that to you.”

* * *

_“Tell me about the night you were taken.”_

_Jake stared at his hand, not able to look at the doctor. “I don't remember it.”_

_“You said before that you remembered when you were leaving the library.”_

_Jake did. He could see it all like a film in his head, one that had somehow gotten looped. He went back to the counter, checking out his books. He saw that moment over and over again, and he saw himself leave, his mind screaming at him to stay inside, but he never listened, never heard the warning. He just walked out and right into their hands._

_“Mr. Malloy—”_

_“That's my father,” Jake said, and then he started laughing because that wasn't actually his father at all. His father was William Adama, but that man had no idea Jake even existed.  
Not that his other father really did, either._

_He didn't matter to either of them._

_He didn't matter to anyone at all._

* * *

“All right, all right, fine,” Kara said, pulling her arm free of the agent holding it. “I won't fight, okay? I won't hit anyone, won't yell and scream and try and get back in there. You can let me go. I'll just go to my hotel and—”

“We need to arrange protective custody for you,” the agent told her. She hadn't gotten his name, didn't care about that, not when she'd been so close to finding out who took Lee. “You'll have to stay here until we've got that organized, and then you'll be escorted to a safehouse.”

Kara frowned. “You have to be kidding me. What I told them about that design cannot possible that important, and besides, I don't need protection. I can protect myself.”

“Just wait in here,” the agent said, pointing her back to the conference room. She sighed. This was frakking ridiculous. Lee was missing, and they wanted her to just sit here and do nothing. It was different when she was making sure the agents did their jobs, but now? She could be helping, and she wanted to smack the hell out of the guy who had Lee.

She sure as frak didn't want to be stuck here waiting for the agents to come back.

He opened the door, and she stepped inside, glaring at the door as it shut behind her.

“Unbelievable.”

“Not so loud,” Helo said, and she turned around, frowning. She'd said that the whole thing with her being expected to sit still was ridiculous, but what she was seeing here was just a bit more than that.

“No one invited me to the pajama party,” Kara said, eying the trio underneath the table. Exactly how had Lee's twin managed to fall asleep on the one female agent around here anyway? Was that just an Adama thing? Helo must be so disappointed. “I didn't know we were having a sleepover.”

Helo shook his head. “It's not like that, though I don't think even if they were willing to let Jake leave he'd be up to going. He was attacked out there, which would make it that much worse for him because he already has issues with going out at night.”

Kara considered saying how pathetic that was, but then she looked at him, seeing the bandage on his head. “They did come after him again. Guess he wasn't wrong to be afraid.”

Helo nodded. “If you knew half the stuff they did to him—never mind. I won't got there. You'll just start freaking out over Lee—”

“We _should_ be freaking out over Lee. We should be out there finding him. Busting up bars or something. Not sitting here doing nothing. I don't know how you can stand it.”

Helo shrugged. “I would like to be doing something to find Lee, but I also know that Lee would want someone taking care of his brother. If I can't be finding Lee, this is... this is where I should be. He would want this. He's... Hell, I think he's more protective of Jake than he is Zak.”

“Sucks to be him,” Kara muttered, kneeling down by them. 

“Do not wake him up,” Karl warned, pointing a finger at her. “He just fell asleep, and he could definitely use it.”

“He is so not the only one,” Bishop said with a yawn. “I'm almost glad I got left behind. I could actually sleep for days right now. Mostly because I haven't sleep in days.”

“Really?”

“Not since Valerii's body was found,” Bishop said, “and since I had a full day before that and didn't really get any rest before the call... Days.”

Kara shrugged. She at least had that on the other woman. “Do you know who did this? Who took Lee?”

She shook her head. “I heard the same audio files, but I didn't have names for them. I know which one he picked, but not who that corresponds to.”

Kara didn't know which one was which, either. She just knew that they'd found recordings for each of the four ranking officers from her ship and taken them off to have him listen. “I bet it's the XO.”

Helo snorted. “You want it to be Kelly because you can't stand him. Not back when he was your LSO. Of course, he'd wave you off on purpose just to screw with you, but that's not the same thing as being a killer. And don't forget that half the reason he did it was because you and Lee pissed him off first.”

Kara shrugged. “Like it was even his place to get ticked off if Lee and I did something dangerous up there. Hello, we're naval aviators. Dangerous comes with the job. The reason he was so ticked was because he couldn't hack it and he knew it. He couldn't have pulled off half what Lee and I can do up there, not even when he was at his best.”

“Yeah, and you got both you and Lee in trouble by rubbing Kelly's face in it.”

Bishop frowned. “Are you saying one of those four has an existing grudge against Lieutenant Commander Adama?”

Helo frowned. “I wouldn't say it went that far. I know that Kelly and Lee have their differences, but Lee's had military protocol drummed into him since he was a kid. He respects the chain of command.”

“Though if you know Lee, you know when he means it and when he wants it to go frak itself,” Kara said with a smile. “Always liked that about him.”

Helo smiled. “You like bringing out the worst in him.”

Kara shrugged. “It's a gift.”

* * *

_“I think we need to discuss what happened last week.”_

_Jake shook his head, turning away from his doctor. He didn't want to discuss it. He knew that she was about to repeat the same thing that she'd told him before—this was a safe place, he didn't have to be scared here._

_Sure he didn't. Last week he'd had a complete meltdown despite the medication. He didn't remember much of anything of their session. He'd come in, had a glass of water, took his medication, and that was it._

_He wrapped his arms around himself, hating this. “No, we don't have to discuss last week. I just want to forget it.”_

_Foster shook her head. “That does not help you—”_

_“I said I'm not talking about it. I don't think I want to do therapy sessions anymore.”_

_“That is not a solution,” she told him. “And I can't continue to prescribe you medication if I don't see you.”_

_“Once a month, then,” Jake said, thinking he'd be a lot better off without having to relive this twice a week. “Just... just to do the prescription. That's all I need.”_

_“You know it isn't.”_

* * *

“You're awake again.”

Lee groaned, wanting to turn over until the pain stabbed through his side. He wanted to put a hand to it, cover over the blood he could feel, but he couldn't get to it. He couldn't move his hands. He might be able to move his legs, but that wasn't going to do much good when the voice was coming from across the room.

He lifted his head, wanting to be sure of that. He needed to know where his captor was. Something was off, but he didn't know what that was, not when he couldn't really think through the pain. He hadn't realized he was this hurt.

He frowned. That was not right. He didn't remember hitting his head, but he could tell from here that wasn't Kelly. Unless his XO was now dying his hair. Lee figured it wasn't impossible, but it seemed wrong. What kind of a killer stopped mid-torture to dye his hair?

“Good. Now we can get to work,” the other man said, coming toward him. He held up a knife, the blade clean, bright, and sharp.

“That... is not work.”

“True,” the other man agreed. He smiled as he stopped beside the bed. “This is a lot more like fun. I like having fun.”

“You sound like a... kid. A demented, psychotic kid, but still a kid. An overgrown... baby. That's what you are.”

The knife stopped just above Lee's skin. “Did your brother tell you to say that to me?”

“He said it to you before?” Lee asked, confused. Was that when this bastard had Jake? Had Jake actually been that bold or—was it before that? “You... you knew Jake. You're... you're Tim. You... You really couldn't take a damned insult? That's why you did all this?”

Tim—that name didn't fit this jerk—snorted. “You think it was just about that? You really are an idiot. Though I'm not surprised. It does seem like only one child ever gets the brains. Though my brother would take offense to that.”

“I would,” Lee told him, getting laughter for that comment. “You're a jerk.”

“Of course you would think so. After all these years of absolute mediocrity, you still act like your brother walks on water. What is that about? He's a useless, spineless, pointless creature. He was supposed to be so strong, but he's not. He was so easy to break...”

Lee shook his head. “You're wrong. Jake's a good person. He's better than me. And he was overcoming what you did to him. He would have, but you didn't let him. You were messing with his medication, weren't you? You got to his doctor.”

“Oh, that wasn't hard. And I did so much more than have his medication changed. Foster was so easy. She was a user, hooked on drugs, and I made the charges go away. She was forever grateful. She was also willing to let me do whatever I wanted as long as I passed the right drug to her.”

Lee stared at him. “You... Are you saying you—”

“Got to admire my handiwork as often as I liked?” The bastard grinned. “Yes, I did. She was so high she didn't know or care what was happening to her patient. I got to see this again. It's a masterpiece on him. Never looks as good on anyone else.”

The knife stabbed into his side, and Lee cried out, yanking on the bonds. He'd been so distracted by the sicko's words that he hadn't even seen the knife move. He was still trying to understand—just what had this guy done to Jake at his doctor's office? And was Jake even aware of that? Was that why he'd had so much trouble?

No, Jake wouldn't lie about it. He didn't know. Lee wasn't sure why he didn't, but if that had happened, then Jake didn't know. He must have been—oh, hell. He'd been drugged. Again. By his own frakking doctor.

“Yours might. I hope it does. I would like to have a perfect match. On you and on him.”

Lee looked at the blood pouring out of the cut. “You bastard.”

The other man ignored him, taking the blade out and studying the blood on it. “At least he was more inventive with the insults. Yours are pathetic.”

Lee didn't care. “I will kill you when I get free.”

“You won't,” the other man said with confidence. “You still want to know why we did this. You want to _understand._ You want to know what he can't remember, every little detail. You don't know everything yet, and it will drive you crazy if you don't. Like it has your brother.”

Lee knew that was true. Part of Jake's problem was that he didn't know exactly what happened to him. Some people thought that should make it easier for him, and in some ways it was, but in others it wasn't. He had horrible nightmares about it, and he didn't know what was real, which tormented him.

That didn't mean that he would let this guy live just to have the whole truth. 

“That wasn't planned, you know. He wasn't supposed to survive.” That smile was damned creepy. “At first my brother wanted to go after him, kill him and keep him quiet forever. It was too risky, going after him in the hospital, but we were... lucky. He didn't remember.”

“You're not going to get away with it now.”

“They don't know who we are,” the other man disagreed. “They won't ever know. Once we're done with you... it'll be over. That's a bit depressing, but it's come full circle now. We started with your brother. We end with you.”

Lee saw him move, and he tried to avoid the knife, but he couldn't get far enough away, and the blade cut into his side, near the last mark.

“Interesting. Your brother did the same thing when I put that mark there.”

Lee waited for him to pull the knife out before he twisted himself to be able to kick, knocking the other man back. The knife skidded across the floor, and the other man swore.

“You shouldn't have done that.”

Lee was hurting too much to respond, even if he wanted to tell him to shove it. He shouldn't have done anything to Lee _or_ his brother.

“You don't have to be alive for me to finish this.”

* * *

_“I thought you said you'd adjusted to your medication.”_

_Jake didn't look at his brother. He didn't want to discuss this. He knew how Lee felt about him backsliding like this, and this was worse than most. He knew he'd freaked out yesterday, and his doctor had to sedate him. This was ridiculous._

_Lee sighed. “I'm sorry. I'm not trying to push. I just don't understand. Last time I saw you, you were... better.”_

_Jake grimaced. “I know. I don't... Maybe it isn't going to happen. Maybe I just... can't get better. The medication works and then it doesn't. I'm fine and then I'm not. I just...”_

_“Don't give up on me,” Lee said. “You can beat this. You know what? I'll resign my commission and stay here full time. I'll stay here, and we will get you past this.”_

_Jake shook his head. “No. you'll hate me for it. You might not be as devoted to the navy as your father is, but you don't want to be out of the air.”_

_“So you'll buy me a hobby plane, and we'll go up on the weekends.”_

_Jake frowned. “You realize I don't actually have any money of my own, right?”_

_“And you realize I don't care what it takes—I promised to get you through this and I will. I don't care about flying. I can think of a dozen ways to get in the air if I need to, so don't think I have to stay in the navy for that.”_

_A part of Jake knew that he should take Lee up on the offer. He also knew that he wouldn't._

* * *

“What was that?”

“Sorry, boss,” Tony said, digging his phone out of his pocket and trying to make a mental not to change that alert tone. Then again, he was pretty sure he hadn't put that one on. Nicely played, McGee. “Looks like... Huh. Text from Abby.”

Gibbs grunted. He sounded annoyed, and anyone would assume he was from the way that he was driving. Trouble was, they just didn't know how Gibbs usually drove, and this was worse because they were trying to find someone before they ended up dead.

“'Fun fact number one,'” Tony read off from his phone. “'Tim and Aaron Kelly's father was one of a pair of twins.'”

“That is starting to make a creepy sort of sense,” McGee said from the backseat. “We've got brothers that look a lot like each other who kill twins or just doppelgangers. If their father was part of a set of twins—”

“'Fun fact number two: there were no less than fifteen calls to the Kelly home for domestic disputes,'” Tony added as soon as the text came in from Abby. “Okay, now that's just twisted.”

“Them having warped a bad childhood into an excuse to kill is not that uncommon or unbelievable,” McGee said. “Like I said, it kind of makes sense and—”

“'Fun fact number three: After burying one husband in the ground, Mrs. Kelly married her husband's twin,'” Tony said, giving McGee a glare. It was a least a little bit sick, especially if the guy was knocking her around. Why would she want to be married to a guy with that face twice? Talk about the post-traumatic stress. “'Fun fact number four: domestic dispute calls continued at the Kelly residence until the day Mrs. Kelly killed her husband in front of her two children.'”

McGee sounded like he might have gagged on that one. “Um...”

“Yeah,” Tony said. “I suppose she could have been the abuser all along, but then I have—oh, here's another one. 'Fun fact number five: Mrs. Kelly's actions were ruled self-defense. She later married her lawyer.'”

“Please tell me he did not look like her husband,” McGee said, shaking his head. 

“So far no word on that from Abby, but I think we know at least part of why these two hate twins and why that design from the base stuck with them so much,” Tony said. He checked his phone again. Nothing yet. Maybe she was done with the fun facts for now. He would be okay with that. He didn't need more.

Gibbs stopped the car abruptly, parking it in front of this innocent-seeming house. Tony almost asked if this was where all those domestic calls were made, but he didn't want to know. No, he really didn't. 

“We got our warrant, right?” Tony asked as he opened his car door. He didn't know for sure that it would have stopped Gibbs, not when a man's life was at stake.

“Came through about the same time as fun fact number four,” McGee said. “We're good.”

Tony nodded as he headed up toward the house. Gibbs was already halfway there, not that it was at all surprising, even with the man's age. He wasn't going to be stopped, not when there was still a chance that Adama was still alive.

Gibbs pushed the button for the doorbell. Tony figured they had to give the guy a chance to answer, even if none of them expected that to happen. They weren't just going to open the door and let them in to rescue Adama. They'd never admit to having him in the first place.

Gesturing to the door, Gibbs stepped back. “Do it, DiNozzo.”

“I love this part,” Tony admitted, going for the full moment. He knew it was less effective, but it was so cool he just had to do the kick with his gun out like in the movies. The door broke on the first try, which was nice, considering how tired he was and how much crap McGee would give him for it.

McGee moved forward into the first room, clearing it. Tony went into the room across the hall, doing a quick sweep. He figured there might be things worth looking at in those file cabinets behind the desk, but the office was empty, and they'd have to come back to this later.

Gibbs and McGee were on the move, heading toward the back of the house. Tony gave the stairs a glance. He didn't know if this place had a basement or not, though he would think that upstairs would be a bad idea. Mostly.

Maybe they should have a floor plan. He bet Abby could get it for them.

“Kitchen's clear.”

“Basement?”

“Looks like there is one,” McGee reported. He looked over at Gibbs. “You want to check upstairs first or—”

“Chances are that if this guy is in the basement, he's already heard us moving around,” Tony said. “We might want to check there first.”

“Split up,” Gibbs said, and McGee nodded, going toward the stairs. Tony shrugged, heading back toward the kitchen and the basement. He had a feeling that was where the action was, and he wanted to end this.

Gibbs opened the door to the basement, turning on the light. He started down, and Tony followed after him, grumbling to himself about the wall that prevented him from seeing anything on the way down.

They rounded the corner, coming to an abrupt stop. “Damn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... At first I wanted to put a Cylon as the bad guy (I'm partial to Leoben as that guy, he still creeps me out.) Only they were the ones that had died at the hands of the killer, and that didn't work so well.
> 
> I tried to find an actor besides Jamie Bamber who'd been on both shows, and while there was the guy who played Crashdown, he was too young for my purposes. Instead, I decided to go with someone who'd shown homicidal tendencies on the show and could conceivably have been a commanding officer for Lee. That brought me to Kelly, the LSO, who did kill Baltar's lawyer. Then I saw the actor had played another character with the last name of Kelly, and that is how his brother ended up Tim.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gibbs and the others find things in the Kelly home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think anything I'd say now would ruin the chapter, so I won't say it.

* * *

_“Look at this. Our first official phone call,” Lee said, and Jake could picture the stupid grin on his face right now. He sometimes found it impossible to believe that they were doing this, and it was harder, too, to understand how they'd managed to get as close as they seemed to be—they were strangers. It didn't make sense._

_“Has anyone ever told you that you're a dork?”_

_“Yes,” Lee answered. “As I know they said the same thing to you.”_

_Jake shrugged. He couldn't deny that, not when he'd been some kind of oddity in his parents' social circles, never fitting in, never coming close. Dork wasn't quite the word they'd used, but it had a similar feel to those elitist insults._

_“I know this is kind of stupid, but I miss you.”_

_“Same here.”_

* * *

“That is... a lot of blood.”

Gibbs grunted. The walls were splattered with it, creating something these sick bastards probably figured was art, though he sure as hell didn't agree with that. This was wrong, though the most disturbing part had to be knowing that most of the victims they knew about couldn't have died here. They were killed in other cities, other places, but this still seemed like a lot more than Malloy's blood or Adama's.

And if it was Adama's, then he had to be dead.

“Boss,” DiNozzo said, and Gibbs looked over to see him nodding to a door down the hall from them. Leaving this space open with that much blood splattered everywhere had to be some kind of mistake, but then Gibbs was starting to suspect that they weren't going to find Adama here at all. This had been staged for them, some kind of sick taunt. He didn't want to believe that, but something here wasn't adding up.

Gibbs followed him to the door. DiNozzo reached for the handle, trying to turn it. It didn't budge. He stepped back and kicked it in, slamming it back against the wall.

“You come any closer and he dies,” the younger Kelly said with a wild look in his eyes, holding up a bloody knife in his hand.

DiNozzo snorted. Gibbs would have glared at him for it. Just because he didn't have the blade right up against Adama's neck did not mean that he wouldn't be able to kill him before they could disarm him.

“How about you drop that knife instead?” DiNozzo asked. “Because, you know, if you don't, we are going to have to shoot you, and that'll get messy.”

“He dies. That's how it has to end.”

“No,” Gibbs said. “We take you in, and that's how it ends. No one else has to die here.”

“Even if they probably should. What did you do over there? Slaughter pigs in pagan rituals?”

Kelly laughed. “Is that really what you think this is? Idiots.”

“Knife down,” Gibbs ordered. “Now.”

“You won't stop me. I already killed his brother, and I am going to kill him. That is how this hast to end. All of them have to die. They're like a poison, spreading through, making more of themselves...” Kelly lunged for Adama, but the pilot twisted away from him just as Gibbs and DiNozzo both fired their weapons.

The gunshots echoed, making it sound like a squad had fired instead of just the two of them. Kelly fell, stumbling down next to the bed. Adama yanked on the cords binding him to the wall, trying to free himself.

“Take it easy,” Gibbs told him as DiNozzo bent to check Kelly's body. He shook his head, and Gibbs nodded, turning back to Adama. “We'll get you down. DiNozzo, go find McGee. One of them is still missing.”

DiNozzo nodded, hurrying off to find the other killer. Gibbs took out his knife and leaned over, cutting Adama's hands free. He took out his phone, dialing the emergency number.

“Need an ambulance,” Gibbs said. He almost swore. “Not sure the address. Got a man down, multiple stab wounds.”

“Let me check—looks like we have emergency personnel en route to your location already,” the operator said, and he had to figure that was Abby's doing. He'd forgotten to call ahead, but then he wasn't necessarily as optimistic as the others, since he wasn't sure that they were going to find Adama alive. “ETA five minutes. Any other injuries?”

“No,” Gibbs said. “Not yet, anyway.”

He hung up and looked Adama over, trying to decide which of the wounds were the worst.

Adama swallowed. “He dead?”

“Yeah. You seen the other one lately?”

“No. They... they must take turns,” Adama said. He put one of his hands over his side. “He said... his brother finished the design... Jake. Did they—”

“Your brother's alive. Has a concussion, but he's the reason you're still alive,” Gibbs told him. “He recognized Commander Kelly's voice.”

Adama managed a small smile. “Thank you.”

Gibbs shook his head. “Just don't die. Gotta go find his brother.”

* * *

_Lee pulled the blanket up over Jake for the third time that night. He didn't know if Jake always did that when he was sleeping or if it was just the nightmares. He knew he used to do this for Zak during their mother's bad nights, and he didn't mind it._

_What he did mind was knowing that in all the time he'd managed to get to be here at his brother's side, he hadn't seen anyone from Jake's adoptive family. Not once. He'd asked the nurses, and they'd told him that he was the only one they'd seen._

_That was wrong._

_And it pissed Lee off._

_Jake had basically been abandoned by two families, and while Lee knew he didn't really want to be an Adama, it was apparently no good being a Malloy, either. Lee was all Jake had, and while there was something to be said for the bond between brothers, it was not enough._

* * *

“McGee?”

“Over here,” Tim called out to Tony, still staring at his find in disbelief. He'd gone through each of the upstairs rooms in turn, not sure what he was about to see, though he'd figured that Gibbs and Tony were going to find Adama. He didn't think that anyone was really going to hold a prisoner in an upstairs bedroom when there was a basement, and maybe that was stereotyping, but that had held true, at least in the sense that every room upstairs was a pretty innocuous bedroom.

Except for this one. This was a little different.

“So, what have we got?” Tony asked as he came into the doorway. “Whoa. Now that is just...”

“Weird,” Tim said, though it wasn't just that. He couldn't put a finger on it, but this didn't seem real. Or right. Or maybe he was exhausted and making too much of things. “What did you find?”

“Adama's alive, but the guy with him had to be put down,” Tony said, holstering his gun as he moved forward into the room. “Damn, did this guy really kill himself?”

Tim glanced toward the body again. “It looks like it. It's hard to believe. I didn't think he would have been able to... to do that...”

Tony nodded. “Takes a special kind of twisted to slit your own throat, but that does explain why we wouldn't have heard anything. And it's not like we didn't know that these guys were that kind of twisted. I mean... even Abby's fun facts don't exactly explain this.”

Tim had to agree. He knew that, statistically speaking, a lot of serial killers came from abusive homes, but that didn't fully explain how these two brothers had turned into a pair of killers. Even taking into account that the abusive parent seemed to be a twin as well, it still felt like something was missing. Maybe Malloy knew what it was, him or Adama since this thing seemed to start with them.

“I'm sure Gibbs has already called for an ambulance. Not that this guy needs it,” Tony said. He yawned. “Damn, I'm tired. Not even the adrenaline is keeping me awake now.”

“We could all use some rest,” Tim agreed. “Gibbs won't like it, but we'll have to let someone else handle this for a while, get some sleep. It's not like we have to worry about them killing anyone else. They can't.”

“That is for sure,” Tony agreed, grimacing as he gave Kelly another look. “Come on, Macabre, let's go tell Gibbs what you found. He'll want to know.”

“Want to know what?” Gibbs asked, and Tim jumped, turning around to see him in the doorway. That really did prove that he was tired, didn't it?

“Ah, there you are, boss. I take it Adama's going to make it?” Tony asked. Then he moved to the side, allowing Gibbs to see Kelly's body. “Guess he heard us and figured it was over? Not sure. McGee found him like this.”

Tim nodded. “He was already dead when I got in here. I don't know what happened.”

Gibbs gave him a look. “He killed himself.”

“No, I know that. I just...” Tim sighed. “Never mind. I'm tired. We all are.”

Gibbs nodded. “Go back to Adama, stay with him until the ambulance gets here. Tony, go wait for them, tell them where they'll find him.”

“Will do, Boss.”

* * *

_“Mr. Malloy? I'm Doctor Foster.”_

_Jake forced himself to nod, and Lee nudged him forward. He'd done as much research as he could into doctors that specialized in Jake's sort of trauma, and there were too many of them that were men, former military officers. He had a feeling that wouldn't go over well with Jake, since he seemed to struggle more with strangers that were men than women. Not that Lee blamed him—Jake hadn't seen his attackers, so any man he met could potentially be one of them._

_This was going to have to work. Lee didn't want to think about the disaster that last doctor had been. She reminded Jake of his mother in all the wrong ways, and she'd wanted to commit him again, which was ridiculous. Jake did not need that._

_“This is Jake,” Lee told her. “I'm his brother. I got your recommendation from Chaplain Cavill. I hope you can help us.”_

_“Oh, I think I can,” she said. “Sit down. I've done some reviewing of your case, but I wanted to talk to you personally before making any kind of assessment.”_

_Jake frowned, but Lee liked the sound of that. “I won't be here for every session. I'm due to ship out again in a couple days, but I wanted to make sure Jake was in good hands before I did.”_

_She smiled at him. “I could promise you that he is, but I'm not so sure you'd believe that.”_

_“Probably not.”_

* * *

“Take another breath. Try and calm down,” Karl advised, and Jake gave him a look. “I know, we keep saying that to you, and we shouldn't because you are trying, but this is a good thing. We're about to go into the hospital to see your brother.”

He could tell Kara was getting frustrated, but no one said she had to wait in the car with them. Karl didn't really want to let her loose on the unfortunate hospital staff, but she wasn't helping anything here, either. She could at least go demand Lee's location out of someone instead of getting all antsy and making Jake's anxiety worse.

“We could go in and find out what room your brother is in,” Bishop offered, giving Jake one of her smiles again. “Then you can go right in to see him and avoid everything else. Though... I say that and then remember that it might be good for you to get some more tests done while we're here.”

Karl frowned. She was also not helping. Jake would not go in for tests. That would just panic him all over again.

“Why don't we all go right now? We'll find Lee, see his room, and if you feel like you need any more medical attention, you can ask for it,” Karl suggested, and Jake forced himself to nod. He still didn't seem convinced, but Karl hoped they could at least get him in the door now.

Maybe after things calmed down again, they could try finding him a better medication for him. Or maybe he wouldn't need it, though Karl wasn't sure that Jake believed what Bishop had said about both of the killers being dead.

If he did, he probably wouldn't be having as hard a time getting out of the car as he was.

“Jake?”

“Lee is not dead, right? You wouldn't lie to me about that, right? This isn't just... a trick to get me to go in for the tests—”

“Frak, no,” Kara said. “If Lee's dead, I'm going to make someone pay. So he had better be alive. We're going to go in there now and make sure of it.”

Jake gave her a worried look, and then he pulled on the door handle, opening it and stumbling out. Karl climbed out on his side, following after him. Jake started running, and Karl cursed his fear of the dark as he sprinted after him. Jake was too damned fast for someone with a concussion.

He caught up with Jake at the desk. The nurse was staring at him, and Karl had to wonder if she'd seen Lee when he was admitted.

“We're looking for his brother,” Karl said. “Lee Adama? Lieutenant Commander Adama. Do you know the room number for him?”

“I'm not sure he's been placed in a room yet,” the nurse said. “Let me check.”

Jake looked around the room, and Karl barely stopped himself from touching him. “We just need a room number. Give her a second, okay?”

“I hate crowds,” Jake said, touching the bandage on his head. “I... I don't know why I—”

“You came for Lee, and he is going to be very glad to see you,” Karl said. He looked back at the nurse, and she gave him a nod.

“Room four-oh-three. Take the elevator up, go left through the double doors and down to the end of the hall, where you make a right, and it'll be there.”

“Thank you,” Karl said, ushering Jake toward the elevator as Bishop and Kara got close. He didn't share the directions since they'd all get there together. Kara hit the button to go up, and when the doors opened, she was in first. Jake eyed the confined space like he was about to bolt.

Bishop stopped next to him. “Gibbs calls the elevator at NCIS his office. He'll pull it to a stop and have conversations in it.”

Jake frowned. “That's... insane.”

“It's Gibbs,” Bishop said with a shrug. “He has... quirks. And really, it's not that bad. Unless you're claustrophobic.”

“I am,” Jake admitted. “Sometimes. It's not always bad, but I... not remembering all they did to me makes me... a bit unstable at the best of times.”

“Well, you're in good company,” she said. He gave her a look, and she smiled. “Trust me, spilling coffee on you is not the most awkward thing I've done. I used to hide up in the ivory tower of the NSA just to avoid having to interact with people. I'd still be there if not for Gibbs and a case.”

“You don't seem... that reserved.”

“I'm not. I'm direct, much to my mother's disappointment,” Bishop said. She shook her head. “I guess I'm not really being that right now. I'll blame sleep deprivation. It gets the better of me, and I start rambling on about statistics or something.”

Kara was glaring at both of them, but Karl held up a hand. What she didn't realize was that Bishop's way of talking worked with Jake better than most distractions. Karl knew it was weird, just like when him and Lee squabbling made Jake calmer, but he didn't knock it, either.

He was proved right when Bishop moved like she was going to touch him and managed to herd Jake right into the elevator. Karl let the doors close and pushed the button for four, sending them up toward Lee's room.

“I'm starving,” Bishop said, and Jake looked at her. “Sorry. I'm stressed and tired. That's never a good combination.”

He snorted. “Try anxious and prone to ridiculous displays of panic.”

She shrugged. “What if that's just part of your charm?”

“I don't have any.”

“Oh, gods,” Kara muttered, and Karl reached over to smack her. She glared at him, and he shook her head. Anything that kept Jake calm and distracted did not get interrupted. And if maybe, by some odd chance there was more to this thing between Jake and the NCIS agent than a case and the pity he feared, it was a good thing. He deserved to be able to do the things other people took for granted like dating—hell, it would just be nice for him not to fear going out at night.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Kara pushed past the others on her way out, and Karl just shook his head. She didn't even know where she was going. He waited for Jake and Bishop to leave the elevator, taking up a position at the front once they were all out.

He led them down past the double doors and to the end of the hall. Turning the corner, he saw guards outside the room, and that was not as comforting as it should have been. He turned back to Bishop.

“It should be just a precaution,” she said, frowning a little. “Unless this is the wrong room. This is Lieutenant Commander Adama's room?”

The guards nodded. Karl gave them another look before pushing the door open to the room. He took a step inside and shook his head.

“Damn, Apollo. You're a mess.”

“Seen you... looking worse,” Lee muttered, cracking an eye open despite sounding completely wasted. “Helo. Tell me... the agents... weren't lying...”

Karl frowned for only a second. “He's here. He's not dead, Lee. He took a hard hit to the head, but he came through for you. He just... had a hell of a time doing it, and he's still fighting the panic attacks.”

“Jake, I'm fine,” Lee yelled, and his brother did manage to get himself into the room. He swallowed, stumbling slightly, and Karl winced. Of course part of this was the damned glasses. Why hadn't he thought of that before?

“Lee,” Jake said, crossing the last few steps to the bed. He hit it, and both of them grimaced with the impact. “Sorry. Glasses.”

Lee put his hand on his brother's arm. “They've got me so drugged... seeing about as well as you do right now. Just glad... he was wrong. He said they'd killed you... I thought... you were dead.”

Jake nodded. “I thought I was when he hit me. Then... that you were.”

“I'm not.”

“And you've got a lot of frakking explaining to do,” Kara said, folding her arms over her chest as Lee groaned. “You have a twin? And you didn't tell me?”

“Nice to see you, too, Starbuck.”

* * *

_“Are you okay? You've been fidgeting like crazy all night.”_

_“Helo,” Lee said in warning, and he shrugged. It wasn't like he could help asking. Jake was pretty damned jittery at the moment. Lee had seen him like this before, so it wasn't anything new, Karl supposed, but for him it was really weird._

_“Sorry,” Jake said, reaching for his water. “I... My doctor changed my medication. Higher dose. It's... I just need to adjust to it.”_

_Helo grimaced. That seemed... wrong. “How long does that usually take?”_

_“Usually just a few days.”_

_“This has been more like a week or more,” Lee said. “I think you have to talk to her and get it fixed. This can't be right.”_

_Jake sighed. “This isn't an overnight fix. Drugs are not going to make me better, Lee, and you know it. Would you just stop pushing?”_

_“I am not pushing,” Lee said. “I just don't think that you're—”_

_“You are not a doctor.”_

_Helo figured this was going to get ugly. He did not want to see ugly. He just wanted to enjoy his leave. “You know what you both need?”_

_“Don't even say it,” Lee warned. “We do not need to get laid.”_

_Karl shook his head. “I was going to say you need to have some fun. I can see what's on your mind, though. What about that girl there at the bar? She's giving you the eye.”_

_“Is this really all sailors do when they're in port?” Jake asked, and Karl just grinned at him._

* * *

“I was starting to think she didn't sleep,” Jake said, giving Kara another frown. Helo and Lee just laughed. He didn't know how they were friends with her, but then he supposed he'd only heard the worst things about her—though, no, that wasn't true. For every story that was hard to believe, there was one that showed Lee's affection for the woman in question, even if it seemed a little warped at times.

“She can't relax often, for all she pretends she's lazy,” Helo said. “She wasn't going to stop until Lee was found and now that he is, she's good.”

Jake nodded. “I guess that makes sense. I just... I find her a little hard to take.”

“She's not a bad person. That whole Starbuck persona is her cover,” Lee said. “She uses it to protect herself, and whether she admits it or not, Zak did a lot of damage to her when he left like he did. I didn't think anyone could make me that angry with him, but he managed to pull it off. It wasn't even about staying to fulfill Dad's obligation like he thinks it was. He broke her heart, and he doesn't see it. He still doesn't think he ever meant anything to her. But Kara... when she cares about someone, she gives them everything.”

Jake touched the bandage on his head. “Is it my concussion or are you in love with her?”

“Don't make me hurt you,” Lee said, though Helo was enjoying it, laughing so hard he was having trouble breathing.

“I could try waking her and take her back to your place,” Helo offered when he stopped laughing. “She'd probably be more comfortable there.”

“Are you sure I'd still have a house after that?”

“Save it for when she's awake,” Helo said, shaking his head as he fought laughter. “You two are going to have lots of fun together.”

Jake shook his head. He doubted that. Kara was probably always going to see him as some kind of pathetic weakling, and he was. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, wishing he could make his brain shut off. Lee had told him he saw Tim get shot, but it was still hard to believe that the monsters that had haunted him for so long were really dead.

Helo came over to his side. “Seriously, though, with those guys dead and us free of lockdown—you want me to go get your glasses for you? Knowing you, you have spares around your place.”

Jake had at least six of his current prescription and a few older ones from before his eyes got worse. “Yeah, actually, I think I'd like that. Not sure how you'd get there since Agent Bishop drove us over here to the hospital and she's not here anymore.”

“She would be if you'd told her to stay.”

“Not again, Helo,” Jake muttered, not sure why the man was so insistent on the idea that she liked Jake. Probably because he knew that it annoyed him, no other real reason.

Helo smiled at him, and Jake was set to say something when he heard a loud voice outside the room. He tensed, his heart starting to race as his breath got hard to catch, and Helo touched his arm. He knew it was supposed to calm him, but it didn't work and Jake almost jumped away as someone came into the room.

“Lee,” a gruff voice said, and before Jake knew what was happening, he was being yanked into someone's arms. “First they said you were missing, then you were wounded. I thought I'd get here to find you were dead.”

“Uh...” Jake tried to form words, but his body wouldn't cooperate.

“There is a part of me that wants to ask you if you'd want that,” Lee said, and the man stepped back, staring at Jake. 

“How the hell can you say that?” the man demanded, shaking Jake as he did.

“Because,” Lee told him, sounding pissed, “I'm over here, Dad.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone tries to wrap up loose ends and sort out the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yesterday I wrote a scene for this... It went really badly, and I couldn't finish the chapter.
> 
> I threw it out and wrote a different version of it. It's better, I think. And I am an epilogue from done, which is... a mixed thing, but mostly good, too.

* * *

_“What time is it where you are?”_

_Lee shrugged. He didn't know. He didn't care, either. Time was different on-board ship, and he tended to only notice the time when it related to a mission he had to fly._

_“If that was an answer, it sucked as one,” Jake muttered. “Some of us have likely pop quizzes in the morning. We would like to be sleeping right now.”_

_Lee put a hand to his head. He hadn't actually thought of that. “Sorry. I just... I got in a fight with my dad earlier, and I can't—I don't even know why he bothered to call. I was going to go let off some steam against the punching bag, but Kara's got everyone going in the gym right now, and I don't want to be around anyone.”_

_“So you called me?”_

_Lee sighed. “It... I guess it seems stupid. It's just... even with their falling out over Zak joining the navy—not joining it, I mean—Zak still has this weird hero worship for Dad, and he won't hear one negative word about him. It drives me crazy. I just... needed someone to talk to, and Helo's in the middle of Kara's thing, so...”_

_“I'm flattered I'm second best.”_

_“Well, I wasn't going to bother you—”_

_“Lee, I was kidding. Learn how to take a joke.”_

* * *

“And here I thought we actually got to sleep when the case was over,” Ellie said as she came into the office. She set her bag down by her desk and looked at the others. “Anyone know why we had to come in this early? Did something happen to Jake or his brother?”

“It's only early because we quit late,” McGee told her. “This is actually normal business hours.”

“Way to get technical, McTimepiece,” Tony muttered, wadding up a paper and throwing it at him. “That doesn't make us any less tired. We shouldn't have to rush back in for paperwork.”

Ellie grimaced, reaching over to raid what was left of her snack drawer. She needed to go shopping to replenish her stores. She took out a granola bar and started opening the wrapper. “We're here because of paperwork? Really? I know we have to do it, but it could have waited a few hours. I thought we had another emergency or even just another case.”

“I think Gibbs is bothered by the fact that one of our guys just up and offed himself,” Tony said, and Ellie frowned at him. “You have to admit—it's an extreme reaction. Suicide by cop is one thing, but just plain suicide? Sure, we were breaking in and were gonna find Adama in the house, but he could still have gone to trial and fought the charges. If it was me, I'd have blamed the whole thing on my brother.”

“Really?” McGee asked with a frown. “You'd just turn your back on family and the guy you'd committed all those crimes with?”

“If I was warped enough to kill people, why would I be loyal enough to take the fall when my brother was a convenient scapegoat? Let's not forget that he's the one who seemed to be the worst of the two. Lawyer Kelly was pretty damned sick.”

McGee grimaced. “Yeah. I... I would like to wash that video from my brain.”

“Video?” Ellie asked after swallowing down a bite of her granola bar. She didn't remember hearing anything about a video.

Tony nodded. “Apparently Foster used to record her sessions with Malloy. Well, with all her patients. She seemed like a decent doctor at first, was actually helping him. Then later...”

“She'd drug Malloy, get herself high, and let Kelly have all the access he wanted,” McGee said, shuddering. “The way he went over and over that pattern he cut into Malloy's side, touching it and talking about how he'd like to do it again...”

Ellie winced. “She actually let him in the same room with her patient?”

“She didn't care. She was too far gone by then.”

Ellie shook her head. That was so wrong, though it did help explain why Jake's PTSD was so bad. He was not being helped by his doctor or his medication. Both were actively making it worse.

“One more thing,” Tony said, reaching into his desk drawer and taking something out of it. He carried it over to her, trying to hand her a pair of glasses. “Abby found these in Adama's car. She didn't think they counted as evidence.”

Ellie frowned. “Why are you giving me these?”

“Because they probably belong to your new friend,” Tony said with a grin. She frowned. “You know Palmer has a big mouth _and_ word of your slumber party also got around. Bishop and Malloy, sitting in a tree—”

“Enough,” Ellie said, having hated that rhyme since childhood.

“Seriously, though, you did get elected to get statements from the twins,” McGee said. “We need a few more things to wrap up the loose ends for Gibbs.”

“Then why isn't he asking?”

“Meeting with the big wigs that just might mean another case,” Tony told her. He put the glasses down on her desk. “Go on now, Bishop. You know you want to.”

“You do realize that with three older brothers—”

“Who could not be half as annoying as Tony or you'd be in prison by now,” McGee said, and Tony gave him a grin and a frown. “It's either that or paperwork, so...”

“I think I'll take the hospital.”

* * *

_“At least the Adama name is good for something,” Lee muttered, and Jake looked over at him, too tired to do much else. He wasn't sure if that was the drugs or the nightmares. Maybe it was the wounds themselves. He just couldn't be sure because he didn't remember getting any of them._

_“What?”_

_Lee shrugged. “I managed to get some strings pulled because of Dad's name. Not that I should have, but it was an abuse for a good cause.”_

_“Cause?”_

_“Being here. You shouldn't be alone. Not after what happened.”_

_Jake sighed. He knew it wasn't worth telling Lee he'd been alone all his life and this was no different. His brother had a noble streak that was both frustrating and endearing. Right now, he was too tired to be either._

_“Just get some sleep,” Lee told him. “I'm not going anywhere, not for a while.”_

* * *

Karl knew things were going to get messy from the moment Lee's father walked into the room. That was just a given, especially when he didn't look past Jake and took hold of him. Karl could see the other man fighting panic in Adama's hold, and Lee seemed to be running the whole gauntlet between confused, concerned, and cross. He didn't know why his father was there—to Helo's knowledge that had not happened before—and it was clear that Adama was upsetting Jake, which never went over well in front of Lee.

“Over there?” Adama didn't even look away from Jake. “You are right in front of me.”

“And yet the one right in front of you is not the one talking,” Lee insisted. He had a point. Jake hadn't managed anything coherent since the older man entered the room. “Dad, look at me.”

Adama did, turning toward the voice and frowning in disbelief. He stared at Lee for a minute before looking back at Jake and frowning. “Lee?”

“No,” Jake said, trying to pull free of him. “Now can you please let go of me?”

Karl grimaced. That was not good. He recognized the tone of Jake's voice, and it was not going to go well if Adama couldn't get over his own shock right now. He had to let go, or Jake would lose it.

“I don't understand,” Adama said, eyes darting between Jake and Lee. “How is this possible?”

“Let go,” Jake repeated, shoving the other man away and stumbling back, starting to hyperventilate. He leaned over the table, and Lee tried to sit up, wanting to get to him. “It's... Don't. Lee, don't. I just... I need a minute...”

Lee watched him with a frown, worry all over his face. Karl was just glad he wasn't trying to move again. Jake gagged and then ran over to the sink, heaving into it. Lee moved again, but Karl put a hand on his arm, pushing him back.

“I've got him,” Karl said, crossing to Jake's side. He took a paper towel from the dispenser and waited, needing to see if giving it to him would be a mistake. “Maybe we should get a doctor.”

“Just... panic attack...”

“Or the concussion,” Karl reminded him, holding out the towel. “You know even if your doctor was not the—”

“Don't,” Jake said, throwing up again. He finished with a bit of a whimper, using the counter to keep himself on his feet. “Don't... remind me.”

“Won't,” Karl assured him, letting him wipe off his face this time. He ran some water to rinse out the sink, and Jake seemed to calm just a little. Karl helped him back across the room, glad Kara could sleep through a carrier landing and hadn't woken up to make this worse than it already was.

Adama turned to Lee. “I was going to ask if you'd found someone who looked like you to pull a prank, but... this can't be a prank. Or it was the worst one I've ever seen.”

“Unfortunately, Jake's PTSD is very real,” Lee said, still worried. “You sure you're okay? The last day was pretty rough for you.”

Jake snorted. “I'm not the one that got kidnapped and tortured this time. That would be you.”

Lee grimaced. “It wasn't that bad.”

“Tortured?” Adama demanded, looking between his sons. “What the hell is going on here? Someone explain it to me. Now.”

Karl cleared his throat. “Um... Well, it seems that your sons were targeted by a pair of serial killers. We're not entirely clear on why, but they took Jake a few years back, messed him up pretty good, but he survived. They got Lee the other night, but NCIS found him in time.”

“My sons?” Adama repeated. “I have two sons—Lee and Zak. I don't have—Lee doesn't have a twin. That's... the resemblance is strong—but I only have two children.”

Lee shook his head. “Don't, Dad. Just... don't. You can't stand there and deny what's right in front of your face, though I know you've done it before. You never did want to see Mom for what she really was, don't want to remember what it was actually like... Face it. She was a drunk. She was a mean drunk. We're lucky she didn't drown all of us. Instead, she gave away one of her kids when he was born. In some ways, Jake was lucky.”

Jake gave him a look for that one. Lee shook his head. Karl supposed the unlucky part came a lot later, though it didn't sound like Jake's adoptive parents were that close. Karl had never met them, that was for sure.

“This... It can't be real,” Adama said, struggling to take this in. “Your mother wouldn't have done that. I know she drank, but she wouldn't have given away a child. She didn't have twins. I would have known if we had twins—”

“Maybe if you'd _been there_ when we were born, but you weren't,” Lee said, glaring at his father. “She was that bad, and she did do it. She even bragged about it sometimes—or she told me that she should have given me away instead. She told me, Dad. She said it over and over again. I thought for a while she just said it to hurt me... but Jake is real. She did do it.”

Jake reached over and touched his brother's hand. “My turn to tell you... calm down.”

Lee managed a small smile. “Sorry. I know this isn't... This is not how I wanted to do this.”

“Liar,” Jake said. “You had no intention of doing this. Ever.”

“You're right,” Lee agreed, closing his eyes. “I didn't.”

“You were never going to tell me about your twin?” Adama demanded. “What the hell is—”

“For one—you should have known,” Lee said, getting dangerously close to angry. “For another, I knew how you'd react. You'd either deny it because you can't see the truth about Mom—that would mean you made a mistake, that you were wrong to leave us with her all those years and stick with the damned navy over us. That... Or you'd start demanding things you had no right to ask for. You've never been his father, and given the heavy handed way you treated me and Zak... I don't think you should be.”

Adama shook his head. “That wasn't your decision to make. I should have been told. You don't know how I'd—you have no idea what I'd—”

“He also didn't want you setting me off,” Jake said. “In case you missed it... I'm a bit of a mess, and I'm not sure he thought I was strong enough to meet you.”

“Jake—”

“And it is also part my decision,” Jake went on. “I know that I... I made the choice based on biased information, but I didn't want to meet your or your ex-wife.”

Karl winced. That was cold. Truthful, but cold. He could see the pain behind the commander's facade. He was not okay. 

“I have parents, more or less,” Jake added, making Lee snort that time. “I don't need more. I didn't need anything from any of you. At least... not before that night. I... I don't think I'd be here if Lee wasn't so stubborn, and Helo, too... but we probably could have gone our entire lives without ever meeting.”

Adama winced. “This isn't—if I'd known—Carolanne didn't even throw it in my face to hurt me when she was at her worst. I didn't know. I didn't.”

“I know,” Jake said. “I didn't... I never said I blamed you. I just...”

He trailed off, and Karl didn't think anything he said could finish that would be good. Probably it was better if he didn't.

“Though for the record, they were totally going to switch places and screw with you at least once,” Karl said, somehow breaking the tension and making everyone laugh.

* * *

_“I used to think what we'd do to make people crazy was switch places and pull pranks,” Lee said, sitting down next to his brother. “Remember the plan? It was supposed to be fun.”_

_Jake looked at him for a moment and then back at his hands. “It was.”_

_“You think we can't do it anymore.”_

_“Lee, I'm locked up in a psych ward. Even if I wasn't, I'd still be jumping at shadows, and with my scars, it would be obvious.”_

_Lee shook his head. Jake was wrong about that. After the bandages came off and more of his hair grew back, he'd be back to almost an exact replica of Lee. Not that he was, but they were twins, and they would go back to looking exactly alike._

_“You know your scar won't show once your hair is longer.”_

_“That won't matter,” Jake said. Lee wanted to shake him, get some sense into him, but he knew that was wrong. He was frustrated, but he had to be patient. Jake's recovery was going to be a long one. Lee already knew that. “Did you miss the part where they said it was permanent? I can barely see. Not that there's anything to look at here, but... my eyes would give everything away.”_

* * *

“Knock knock.”

“Agent Bishop,” Helo called, and Jake bit back a groan. As if it wasn't bad enough to have his biological father there, meeting him in such an awkward way, but now Helo was going to start in on his non-existent relationship with the agent again. “Just the woman we wanted to see.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” Bishop said. “I didn't mean to interrupt anything, but I thought that maybe these might be welcome.”

She held out something in front of her, and Jake reached out to find the object was a pair of glasses. He smiled, grateful, and then put them on, blinking to adjust to the room.

“Where did you get these?”

“Your brother's car,” Bishop answered. “We had to process it for any evidence from the fight in the parking lot, and Abby found them. She thought you'd like to have them.”

Jake nodded. “It is... a relief to be able to see again. I... Coming out of that whole... thing... with impaired vision... it was... It didn't help, I guess. I felt even more powerless. If I lose my glasses...”

She nodded. “I'm sure. How's your head today? Better, I hope.”

He couldn't be sure, since Helo might be right about the nausea being from his concussion and not from that panic attack when his father came into the room and wouldn't let go of him. “I think so. Is there something else? You didn't come here just to give me my glasses. I could have gotten them myself—Helo offered to do it, too.”

She grimaced. “I am also supposed to get some statements from both of you.”

Jake didn't know what he would say, and he didn't really want to have another meltdown again. “I am not sure that there's anything I can tell you that I haven't already. Does this have to be done today?”

“Gibbs is trying to make sure we have all the pieces and can properly close the case,” Bishop answered. “Tony's theory is that having one of them kill himself was too neat for Gibbs and he's wanting to be sure we have everything we need to be sure this is really over and that those two are the ones who actually did kill the victims we know about as well as being responsible for the attacks on the two of you.”

Jake swallowed. “You... you don't really think there could be another killer out there, do you?”

She shook her head. “No, what we know seems to be consistent with them being the ones behind all of it, from their childhood abuse at the hands of not only their father but their father's twin, their mother killing their uncle in self-defense, the mark Starbuck recognized that's on all of the victims, and the grudges they had against each of you respectively, even the involvement of your doctor... we have that. We're just making it clear in each case.”

Jake frowned. “Wait a minute—grudges? What do you mean by that?”

“She means that your 'friend' from law school was one of them,” Lee said, and Jake looked back at him. “Yeah. He was... I don't know. He couldn't stand you, but that still doesn't explain taking you, torturing you, and almost killing you, not to me. Same with my XO hating me that much. It doesn't fit.”

“Arguably, they were both crazy,” Helo said. “They'd have to be to kill that many people.”

“How many?” Adama asked. He turned to the bed. “Lee, how many?”

“I don't know. They never actually told us that,” Lee said. “Don't give me that look. I'm not lying to you.”

“I'm sorry,” Bishop began, frowning. “Who are you?”

“I almost didn't realize he came out of uniform. I didn't even know that was possible,” Lee muttered. “Agent Bishop this is my—our—father, Admiral William Adama.”

“Oh,” she said, forcing a smile. “Hi. Ellie Bishop.”

“Future daughter-in-law,” Helo said, and Jake reached over to smack him, but he dodged, bumping Kara as he stumbled out of the way. She swore, loudly, and Helo just smiled. “Say hello to Admiral Adama, Starbuck.”

“Frak that. Lee's never going to get promoted that far. He's not willing to kiss enough ass for that,” she muttered, pulling herself up to her feet while Helo continued to laugh. Bishop seemed to be trying not to smile, and Lee was almost as bad as Helo.

“I believe Lieutenant Agathon meant me,” Adama said, and she stared at him. “You're Starbuck, then. Heard a lot about you.”

“None of it good, I'm sure,” she said, smiling to hide her last statement. “Nice to finally meet Zeus. Didn't think you came down off Olympus.”

“Zeus?” Adama asked with another frown. Lee groaned.

“He's Apollo, so you have to be Zeus, right?” Kara said, and Jake looked over at his brother, who was also frowning. Did this sort of charm actually work on their father? That was just... weird.

“I'm flattered,” Adama said, and she shrugged. “I'd like to talk to your captain when Lee's cleared—it's been too long since I've seen him in the air, and I've heard watching you two together is something else entirely.”

“He can almost keep up with me,” she said, grinning. “So, yeah, it's a decent show.”

Lee flipped her off, getting a frown from Adama.

Bishop leaned over close to Jake. “I'm starving. Would you be willing to come with me to the cafeteria to do the statement?”

Normally, probably not, but he would like to get away from his biological father for a bit, try and figure out how he felt about that. That, and he figured he should fix the damage Helo had done with his stupid remark about a future daughter-in-law. “Okay.”

She smiled at him, and he hurried toward the door, ready to be out of the room for a while.

* * *

_“I know that I must always ask you this,” Lee said, wishing he didn't feel the need to ask again, “but are you sure you're okay? Is this some... stressful merger or something at work?”_

_Jake shook his head, pulling his blanket around him. “No. It's... I'm sorry. I've been a little off since I saw Doctor Foster yesterday.”_

_“You know, if you think she's not helping you, maybe you should find another doctor,” Lee said. Jake looked at him. “I'm not kidding. This isn't the first time you've come back from one of your appointments with her unsettled and agitated. Or the first time you had a panic attack while you were there. If she's not able to help you, you need someone else.”_

_Jake sighed. “I don't want to go through trying to find another doctor. It's not always like this, either. I... I'll be fine. This... happens. There's no instant cure for what I have.”_

* * *

“What do we have?”

“A lot of creepiness,” Abby answered, getting a look from Gibbs. She shrugged. That was still true. That room they'd found Adama in and the one next to it were full of gross things, and while she was good at dealing with things that were disturbing, this one ranked up there.

“Besides that?”

“Well, Gibbs, you're early. Not all of our tests are back,” Abby told him. “I can't tell you who all the blood belongs to, not yet. I can confirm that it is human, but I'm waiting for DNA matches to our victims. I am almost certain that I'm going to find that of Adama and Malloy, but considering that they are twins, it may be hard to sort out which is which.”

Gibbs frowned. “Abby—”

“Identical twins do share DNA, remember?” Abby said. He should. They had definitely worked that case. She remembered it. A faked serial killer and a woman who had to pee. That was priceless. “Though I might be able to pinpoint variations in the—”

“Just tell me what you have.”

“I have Aaron Kelly's DNA on Adama's broken window. He was definitely involved in Apollo's kidnapping,” Abby told him. “I also have dates on Kelly's service record that match up with times when his ships were in port and when other victims went missing or died. He was also on leave when the non-port city murders happened. He could definitely be involved.”

“That's what you have for me?”

She shrugged. “After I finished my glass puzzle, I was bored waiting for my results and all of you were busy rescuing Apollo, I decided to do some research for you. Didn't you get my fun facts?”

“They weren't very fun.”

“True, but they were enlightening,” Abby said. “I think I saw bits and pieces of how the serial killer duo came to be, and I almost felt like Ducky. In fact, I gave Ducky what I found, and he probably has an even better profile for you.”

Gibbs shrugged. She knew that he'd go see Ducky after this. That was a given. She took a deep breath and let it out.

“I also have those files from Doctor Foster's computer that confirm the involvement of Tim Kelly in Malloy's abduction. Malloy did confirm the older brother's voice, and then the younger one incriminated himself on the video sessions Foster made with her patient. He sits there, coos as he talks about how much he enjoyed making the mark on him... it was like he was reliving it all... and maybe even getting off on it.”

Gibbs grunted. That was sick, but there was no denying it. They had the footage.

“If you are looking for me to tell you we didn't get our man—men—I'm going to disappoint you. So far, everything we've got says that the Kellys did this. Or did you want me to tell you that they didn't?”

Gibbs didn't answer.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some seek escape, some need a means of coexisting, and others want closure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am reminded again of why I hate endings. They are so... hard to do and harder to do well, and finishing is such a strange thing. I'm very bad at it.
> 
> I tried for the open ending, mostly wrapped up and on the way to healing. I did.

* * *

_“You know what the stupidest thing is?”_

_“What?”_

_“If you ever dreamed about having a different family, a different life, you'd want it to be better, but then you find... it's not. It's just as screwed up and hopeless as yours already is, and it won't change. Ever. That's just how the world works.”_

* * *

“I think I have to thank you.”

Ellie shook her head. “Bringing you your glasses was not anything special, trust me. I was coming to the hospital anyway since I got assigned to get statements, and so it really wasn't anything extra to give them to you.”

“No,” he said, and then grimaced. “It's not that I'm not grateful to be able to see again. It's... admittedly harder when I can't. The panic attacks are worse because it's like that night or the nightmares in between, but... it can be nice not to see as well.”

She considered that. She'd had some success with minor sensory deprivation inspiring her—turning off the lights to imagine things or closing her eyes before eating—but she'd never really thought about it before now. “Yeah, I suppose it does.”

“I just... it was a little awkward in there with my biological father,” Jake said. “That's why I agreed to do this. I'm... I didn't really want to discuss it again. I still can't... It was Tim, and it's over, but it's still... not real. Lee's fine, and I've seen that, but it's still not... real.”

“It's probably going to take a long time to settle in that you're safe,” Ellie told him, wishing it was otherwise. “Though this time, with both of them dead, it'll really be true, unlike in the past where they were still out there.”

Jake nodded. He reached for his coffee and sipped from it. Setting it back down, he folded his hands together. “I should warn you that the last time I tried to give a statement, they had to sedate me. I was fine for the first few paragraphs, then I lost it, couldn't breathe, ran from the room... It was really... embarrassing.”

She grimaced. “You shouldn't have to feel like that. You didn't do anything wrong. The person who did wrong was the one who hurt you. You shouldn't have to feel that your reaction to what they did is wrong—everyone reacts differently and copes differently, and in your case, you might have coped a lot better if your doctor hadn't interfered with it.”

He looked down. “In hindsight, there were signs that something was... off there. I know I actually seemed to have more panic attacks in her office, and I was better on the original medication than the second one—the Darvonex—but she said it was too dangerous to stay on the other one and I believed her.”

“We are told that doctors are trustworthy, and most of them are,” Ellie said. “Ducky is amazing. I almost wish he'd practice other medicine because if I got sick, I'd rather have him care for me than someone else. And I've known other good doctors over the years. I'd still trust them even knowing what yours did. I'm not sure you can, and that's not—no one should judge you for that, either.”

“I don't think you're as bad with people as you claim you are.”

She laughed. “I don't know. It's easy to say all this, a lot less easy to practice, and in your case, there's not a lot of gray involved—it's black and white—no one should be making you feel ashamed because of what they did. That wasn't your choice. They didn't have any right to do it to you, and it is the sort of thing no one should have to go through. You are lucky to be alive, and no one should be punishing you for surviving.”

“Lee's been saying the same thing for years, but it's hard to accept,” Jake admitted. “My family... Well, we'll leave aside the part that's Lee's that I don't really know, but mine basically wanted me to take drugs and get over it. It was like... It didn't happen. I was just supposed to carry on. I even... There were times when I wondered if they'd arranged it so that I would buckle down and do what they wanted with the company. I did. I... I couldn't go back to law school... My whole life changed. It seemed to be what they wanted.”

“Maybe, but was it also what you needed then?” Ellie asked, and he frowned. She shrugged. “There is no shame in doing what you need to recover. You have a job and a home. Others don't. You'd need shelter and support to heal, which is what you have.”

He eyed her with suspicion. “You may be right about that. Lee and I... we both kind of saw it as giving up, not fighting against what my parents wanted.”

“Maybe in a way, but not completely,” Ellie disagreed. She reached for her juice and drank it down. “I know there were people who thought me leaving the NSA for NCIS was a step backward, something less important, an inferior job for my skill and mind, but this place... it gives me something I never had at the NSA, and I value it. Maybe being head of your family's company wasn't what you wanted, but that doesn't mean you can't do good there. How many jobs depend on you? Can you improve the company for your workers? That's not anything to be ashamed of, either.”

“I'll have to see,” he said, and then he eyed her plate, shaking his head. “I cannot believe you ate all of that.”

She shrugged. “I like food.”

“Have you ever tried that place down on...” Jake winced. “Sorry, directions are not my forte. I just... It's called Chez Nicole. It's just this little hideaway spot. I like to eat there, usually for lunch. It's... people don't bother me there, which is a weird reason to like a restaurant, but the food is also good and it's just... a nice place to spend time.”

“I've never been there, but I know where it is,” she said. “I used to pass by it on my way to work at the NSA. I just... never found time to go there, and now it's out of the way, but... I'll definitely have to try it.”

He smiled at her, and she smiled back.

* * *

“Relax, Lee. He'll be back. And he's in good hands.”

“Yeah,” Kara agreed. She leaned down to whisper in his ear. “Karl's convinced your brother has met his future wife, after all.”

Lee almost shoved her away. She was not helping. He knew the Kellys were dead, but after all that they'd been through, he'd prefer having his brother in the room with him. That, and he wasn't really sure how Jake or his father had taken that meeting. Oh, the admiral was all quiet now, but Lee figured he'd be hearing about it for a long time. His father wasn't going to forgive him for not telling him about Jake, though Lee stood by his reasons for keeping it secret.

Let the admiral play father of the year for Helo and Kara. Lee knew better, and he wasn't going to pretend he didn't.

He shouldn't be like that. His father wasn't the worst of them, not really. His mother was—she was the one who'd been drunk almost all of Lee's life, who blamed him for the marriage and ruining her life, the one who'd given away her son because she couldn't handle it. It was just hard to forgive the man that was never there and wanted to believe none of it ever happened.

“Whatever Kara's telling you is a lie,” Helo said, and she rolled her eyes. “You know better than to trust her.”

Lee shook his head. “Why are we even having this conversation?”

“Because it distracts you from worrying about your brother. You'd think Jake was the one who'd been abducted and tortured, not you,” Helo said, and then he held up a hand. “I know—it happened to Jake. They had him for longer, and he almost died. In all, you got lucky. He remembered enough to pick out Kelly's voice so NCIS could find you. That doesn't mean that Jake's not capable of being by himself for a few minutes. Yeah, it would be better if he would just double check with a doctor here about the concussion, but we know he won't because his last doctor—not the medical examiner, the shrink—screwed him over. At least he's with an agent and doing his best to move past this again. In that respect, he's years ahead of where he was when it happened to him. It didn't break him this time, which... I don't know. I think we were all afraid it was going to, but he proved just as stubborn as you are. He forced himself past every panic attack, every bad memory, and a concussion to make sure he did everything he could to help you.

Lee nodded. “I'd tell him I was proud of him if he was here to tell.”

“He'll be back. You two never leave each other's side for long.”

“Except for the fact that someone didn't even tell us he had a twin,” Kara said, and Lee looked over at her. He knew he hadn't managed to talk to her about it, explain things, but then was his reason really that hard to guess? It was obvious she would trigger Jake's PTSD, and he'd wanted to avoid that. “Me and your father? That's kind of low, Apollo.”

Lee shook his head. “Kara, you've known Jake for a day, right? This morning he was more like he was before the attack than he's been in a decade, but you also saw him have a panic attack when Dad touched him. That's his daily life. He's been struggling for years. We agreed to work on small things to get past some of his triggers, but he still has trouble going to a bookstore—and that's not the library he was at just before he was attacked. Or being outside at night. He'll only go if he's not alone, and even then, he just gets more and more anxious until we finally leave.”

“So you think I'd be a trigger?”

“Kara, you're a walking trigger, and I say that with affection. You're loud, tough, and don't hold back. Those can be good things, but Jake jumps at loud noises, touching him can set him off, and he will beat himself up for weeks if he thinks he's to blame for any part of what happened or how he reacts to it. He sees himself as weak, and you'd reenforce that with you being... who you are. I'm not trying to say it's right, just that... It has been a long, hard fight to get Jake back from where he was after they took him, and I wasn't going to risk it.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Oh, really?”

“Jake got committed and almost killed himself multiple times, Kara. What do you want from me? An apology? I'm sorry. I don't think I'd ever give you one—I placed my brother's sanity over telling you about him, and I'd do it again. I'd do the same thing with Dad,” Lee said, looking over at his father, not sure he wanted to think about just how damaging that disapproving look could be from You weren't there. You didn't see what I did or the decisions I had to make. Jake's adoptive parents as much as washed their hands of him after he was taken. It... Maybe I made the wrong choices, but I did what I did to help him.”

His father shook his head. “I wish you would have told me. I could have been there for my son.”

Lee glared at him. “Like you were there for me? Ever? Don't start, Dad. You do not want to go down this road.”

“I think maybe the thing to do now is not continue to argue over what can't be changed but focus on doing better in the future,” Helo said. “Now that Kara and your dad know about Jake, they can work on being a part of his life—which is, I'll remind everyone—his decision. I'm all for Kara hanging out with Jake because that's going to be hilarious. As for the admiral... well, sir, I think you're at a bit of a disadvantage. Jake's an adult who has a father and could refuse to do anything with you. That said... the way to Jake is Lee and vice versa, so if you prove you're sincere about it... Be the father you weren't to Lee, and Jake will take you at your word.”

“Are you making some kind of joke?” the admiral asked, and Karl shook his head.

“No, I'm dead serious. You weren't there when Lee was a kid, so be there now. You took that step already by showing up here, and that's good. It's just nowhere near enough for the kind of damage your ex or those serial killers did, okay? You've got a long road ahead of you with both of them, but it's not impossible. Just...”

“What?”

“Know that ordering either of them around will backfire spectacularly,” Karl finished.

“Wow, Helo,” Kara said. “That is so... true.”

Lee gave Helo a grateful smile. “I know I never say it, and this is going to sound wrong, but thank you. I don't know how I ended up with a friend like you, but... I owe you. More than I can ever repay.”

Helo just shook his head. “You don't have to repay anything.”

* * *

“I believe something is bothering you, Jethro.”

“Is it that easy to tell?”

Ducky smiled. “Perhaps not, perhaps only to those who know you well. This case has you agitated, and yet we have seen no sign that it has not been resolved. Two killers dead, connected to all the crimes in question, and a young man rescued from those same killers. That ending does not satisfy you. Why not?”

“Little things,” Gibbs admitted, not even sure what all of them were. “There are pieces missing, and I can't see where they fit or how. Why male and female victims? Just because of the twins? Their father and uncle were men. And why just one of these two? They took Malloy and then never touched Adama until now. All the other pairs died within the same year, but not them.”

“Perhaps that is because Malloy did not die as was expected,” Ducky answered. “I've consulted the records from his original case. He was left outside, exposed, and I believe they assumed the temperature would have killed him if the wounds did not. The hypothermia, however, may have led to his metabolism slowing enough to give doctors the time to save him.”

“Sounds backwards.”

“It's not fully tested and proven yet, but it could be the medicine of the future,” Ducky said. “There is an experiment now that's testing a similar concept in the emergency room, but that may take years to show its viability.”

Gibbs shrugged. If it worked, it worked. He didn't know that he ever wanted to be a part of it, but then he didn't have to be. “Malloy survived, so it threw them off?”

“Remember, too, that our killers had personal connections to both brothers. It would even seem that one was obsessed with his victim. He revisited Malloy on several occasions, reliving his time with the man and delighting in having power over him again. That illusion may have led him to kill others, but it was a sensation that could never quite come to the same level again—he lacked the connection to the others. That led to shorter killings, attempts to conceal their work... One of them was desperate to keep control of the other that was spiraling further and further out of it—my guess would be that was the older brother. He tried to restrain his brother, but it was beyond him at the end. Foster was dead, and he knew that Malloy had recognized his voice. Taking Adama was unplanned, but it had to happen. They might have agreed that the cycle ended with him since they assumed Malloy died in the parking lot. He let his brother have the last kill knowing it was over and ensured his own end instead.”

Gibbs considered that. All of what Ducky said made sense. It could explain things. “We sure about any of this?”

“There is an angle that I do think may have existed but would rather not pursue,” Ducky said, and Gibbs looked at him. “Of a sexual aspect. They may have only found arousal or completion in killing, or there could have been that kind of abuse in their home as well. It is difficult to be certain, and as I said, I don't actually want to pursue it, fascinated as I am by the human mind.”

Gibbs shook his head. He didn't want to think about that, either. “And Foster?”

“She was not a twin or a lookalike, not so far as we know, but she was still dangerous in that she knew what they had done,” Ducky said. “The need to kill went along with the compulsion to mark, leaving her as evidence against them even as she was killed to suppress it. A shame, really. Before her addiction, she was a good doctor.”

“Then why doesn't it feel like it's over?” Gibbs asked, and Ducky chuckled.

“I'm afraid that is an easy question to answer. It isn't. The effects of this have ripples into our lives, but also very much into the ones more directly effected, anyone who had a loved one taken by these killers as well as Malloy and Adama, who have much to overcome as well.”

Gibbs grunted.

“I think what you actually need is a drink. As your doctor, I recommend one.”

Gibbs almost smiled.

* * *

“This has had unintended consequences.”

“Yes.”

“The Kellys are dead.”

“A tool is only good so long as it is useful. They had become too dangerous to allow to live. This way ensures that no one will look further into the matter. The monsters have been found and killed, and the natural order appears restored.”

“But the work—”

“Is far from finished. We had to sacrifice pieces to safeguard the greater whole. We will regroup and begin again.”

“By your command.”


End file.
